They’re a thing. Every now and then, someone in my house enjoys watching them. Just go on YouTube, and you’ll see what I mean. There is a whole genre of satisfying videos. Here’s an example of one that caused a delay in writing this post…because I couldn’t stop watching it!
These satisfying videos and photos are especially heartwarming for perfectionists. They capture moments in time that are precise. But here’s thing. These videos and photos satisfy for a moment. Then they are done. Sure, we can watch more videos and view more photos. But if we are longing for deeper, sustained satisfaction, it becomes clear real quick that these videos don’t go that deep. Not to mention the fact that we can’t sit on our phones or TVs and watch videos all the time.
Furthermore, while satisfying videos are humorous and kinda cool, the problem of dissatisfaction is not funny. We can feel dissatisfied in so many areas. Relationships, finances, health, stress. Many of us are aware of deep inner longing, of a dissatisfied life. It’s why we sit on our phones so much, binge-watch so much TV, and try to ease the pain of life with addictions and escapes of many kinds. So is there anything that can satisfy the soul?
As we continue our series in
Deuteronomy, we have arrived at chapters 12 and 13, and we’re also going to
jump briefly into a few verses at the end of 16 and beginning of 17. What can satisfy the soul? Let’s see if Moses
can help us answer the cry of our inner longings.
First of all let’s look at the intro to chapter 12, verses 1-3.
Here Moses is introducing the next and longest section of the book of Deuteronomy, and what the book of Deuteronomy is named for, the Second Law, or the second telling of the Law. Chapters 1-11 have been part historical account, and partly a re-establishment of the Ten Commandments and how they are summed up in the idea of Loving God. This is the foundation of the covenant. Now in chapters 12-26, Moses gets into the specific laws.
Before we get into the laws and commands of God in chapters 12 and 13, I think it will be helpful to briefly talk about why God has these commands in the first place. It could seem like he is micro-managing the people. Scan through Deuteronomy 12-26, and you will see there are a lot of laws. Why does he have to be so specific and detailed? Isn’t it a bit controlling, all these commands? Is God a dictator?
It reminded me of when our son Tyler came home from Army basic training and AIT. He had been gone for about 5 months, living a totally regimented life. There was almost no freedom. Especially at Basic Training, just about every moment of every day is spelled out for you by your drill sergeants. But then it was all over, and he returned home. On one of those first days back, Michelle found Tyler in his room sitting on his bed, just staring. She said, “What’s wrong?” And he replied, “I’ve been sitting here for 20 minutes, and I don’t know what to do.”
You see what happened? In just under 5 months, his life had been
transformed to the point where he lost his sense of personal freedom, and was
used to having someone tell him what to do.
Now imagine if it wasn’t 5 months. Imagine if it was over 400 years, and your entire culture and nation was raised up under that kind of control? Where you and your parents and your grandparents, and many generations before them, were always slaves, and nearly everything in your lives was dictated by the ruling powers! For those of us not from an ethnicity that ever experienced that, it is very hard for us to put ourselves into that mentality. But that slave mentality is exactly what was deeply entrenched in the people of Israel. They had been brainwashed for centuries, and that mentality doesn’t just leave them the moment they cross the Red Sea. In fact, if you read the books before Deuteronomy, the books of Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, you will see the people of Israel reverting to their slave mentality often. God knows this. And he desperately wants them to be free of that slave mentality. He knows that mentality goes down deep in their lives, and thus they could easily be lured into worshiping the gods of the nations around them, nations that were far more powerful than Israel. And you know what more powerful nations do to weaker nations? The more powerful nations enslave the weaker nations. God knows that unless Israel takes drastic action, following his ways for them, they will almost certainly be defeated by those other nations and enslaved all over again.
With that, we set the stage for the recounting of God’s laws to Israel in Deuteronomy 12 and 13. What will he say first? And how will he address the longing of their hearts? And if we are struggling with dissatisfaction, what might we be able to learn from ancient laws to help us? Check back in tomorrow, as all week long we’ll be seeking to answer that very question: what can satisfy the soul?
It is apple season, and my family actually has an apple tree in our yard. The few apples that grew on the tree this year just fell down a few days ago. They didn’t fall far from the tree. Is that just an old adage? What do apple trees matter to loving God?
Yesterday, in my fourth post in this series, How to grow your love for God, I said that the primary principle Christians can learn from Deuteronomy 11 is that we grow our love for God by obeying his commands. The next principle is that of “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” OK, so Moses doesn’t say that exactly, but the principle he shares is very similar. In verses 18-21, Moses asks the people to convey the terms and actions of the covenant to the next generation. This is akin to Jesus’ idea of making disciples. We Christians are called to convey the wonders of the God to the next generation, and to those who are not yet a part of God’s family.
Look at Moses’ description in these verses. He uses figurative language. “Fix these words in your hearts and minds, tie them onto your body.” In other words, be a walking billboard.
Again, that is some figurative language through which God is teaching a deeper principle. What is the principle, and how do we apply it? The principle is that we are to be passionate about raising up the next generation to love Jesus. A majority of it needs to be done by parents in the home. Teach the way of Jesus to your children, no matter if you are at home, driving on the road, or working in the yard. Teach your children to follow Jesus, to know that God is near, that he loves them, and that the best possible way to live is to follow his commands and ways.
One literalistic way to apply this is to actually post messages on the walls of you home. My wife is so good at this. She posts Bible verses and principles literally on the walls of our house. Here are some examples.
I’m not saying you all need to do this. Clearly God is not saying that he is requiring us to post his laws on the walls of our homes. While it is totally fine to do that, what does he want? He wants our hearts to beat with love for him.
And that means more personal, relational interaction, conversation, and discussion between adults in the family and the younger people in the family. Parents and Grandparents, be intentional about investing spiritually in the lives of your kids and grandkids. One of the things my parents started doing when my older boys were in elementary school was they stopped giving my kids toys for birthdays and Christmas. Instead they started giving them adventures. They took them to Washington DC, or Niagara Falls. It was a gift of their time. So much of our spending on gifts and holidays and vacations is self-indulgent. Parents and grandparents, how can you use gifts and vacations to focus on serving, or on spiritual growth rather than self-indulgence?
Evaluate how are you using time at home. I admit that I have not been consistent with this. We’ll go through phases where we have regular devotions around the dinner table. But I also know that we can have tons of time watching TV, playing games on devices, and little spiritual conversation. It is much easier to talk about video games, sports, school, etc. Almost any conversation with kids is good, but we need to be proactive about communicating God’s ways to them.
But maybe you’re like me, and you sometimes find spiritual conversation difficult. It begs the question, am I so loving toward Jesus that I can’t help but talk about him? I have to ask myself, how much does Jesus occupy my thoughts and my conversations?
This takes us back to the axiom of “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”. If I want my kids and grandkids to know God and follow his ways, than I should be a person who more and more loves Jesus. The greatest thing you can do to invest in your kids’ spiritual growth is for you yourself to grow spiritually first. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. If you love Jesus and follow him, then your kids and grandkids will be much more likely to as well. But if your time with and love for Jesus is weak, it will be super rare for your kids to have a stronger relationship with Jesus than you do.
So invest time in your relationship with Jesus. What I’m talking about is a vibrant relationship with Jesus, such that you and I are excited about talking about him with other people, especially our families. That means cultivating a relationship with Jesus. And cultivating a relationship with Jesus involves time, an investment of time.
Lately, if you were around me much, you would almost certainly know what I have been spending time doing. Why? Because I talk about it and am excited about it. That’s why I spend time doing it. What have I been spending a lot of time on? Running a marathon, starting doctoral courses, and other activities my family is involved in. As a result, I talk about it all them time. It is all very important to me.
Our small group studied the book Freedom from the Tyranny of the Urgent this past year or so, and it does an excellent job helping you think through how you spend your time. You might consider picking up a copy of that book, learning about how to use your time more wisely, and then making some changes to your schedule so you can have more time to grow your heart for the Lord. So let’s invest in our relationship with Christ, that we might grow our excitement about him and thus be better equipped and more likely to pass him on to the next generation. That’s called discipleship. It is when we ourselves grow in our knowledge of, trust in, and obedience to the way of Christ, and then help others do the same.
Does following God sometimes feel burdensome to you? Can it seem like there are so many rules, and your heart and mind are not inclined to follow those rules? If you’ve ever thought or felt something close to that, you’re not alone. Many people have wondered why following God’s ways can be so difficult. Most of know, however, that just because something is hard, it doesn’t mean it is impossible. Rather it means you might have to invest some energy and sweat into it. It might be costly. But will it be worth it? Following God’s ways raises all these questions. Keep reading as we conclude our study of Deuteronomy 11 today and tomorrow, examining the ramifications of Moses’ teaching for our lives. In the previous three posts, we’ve looked at sections 1 through 6 of Deuteronomy 11, seeking a pattern Moses seemed to have utilized each time.
How will Moses wrap this seventh and final section? Look at verses 26-32. In section 7 the order is reversed from all the previous sections, as the rationale comes first, and the action follows.
So first, why does he want them to do this? In verses 26-28, he wants them to understand God’s covenant treaty of blessings and curses resulting from their obedience or disobedience of God’s commands.
What is the thing he wants them to do? In verses 29-30, he says they need to proclaim this treaty in a ceremony when they enter the land. They were to go up to two mountains that faced each other and proclaim the blessings and curses of the treaty, thus reenacting and renewing the treaty, this covenant between the nation and God. If you read ahead in the book of Joshua, chapter 8, you see they actually perform the ceremony.
Finally, then, we come to verses 31-32 which are a summary of the whole passage: “You are about to enter the land, I am giving you. Obey my commands.”
Let’s take a step back and look at the whole chapter. Have you seen the pattern? Moses tells the people of Israel the same thing seven times in a row: Show that you love God by observing his commands, and he will bless you. But disobey, and you will be cursed.
Clearly Moses wants the people to pursue the blessings! He wants them to thoroughly love Yahweh, which they will demonstrate by obeying his commands. He also wants them to make it such a priority, that they teach the next generation to do the same. It should be an ever-present discussion in their lives, in their homes, in their travels.
We Christians are in a different covenant with God. Israel had a unique treaty covenant with God that we don’t have. We have new covenant, written for us in the New Testament. But there are clearly principles that carry over.
What principles about God’s heart do we see in Deuteronomy 11? Today we look at the principle that flows from all the sections, and tomorrow we’ll return to that axiom we started the series with: “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
So today we see that God loves his people, provides for his people, and wants to be in relationship with his people. God makes his commands known, and he asks his people to follow his commands, because he has their best interest in mind.
When we hear the label “commands”, that loving relationship and God’s desire for our best interest can get lost in the supposed negativity of command language. We can think that his commands are burdensome, and oftentimes make no sense, or seem outdated. We can lose any semblance of seeing how his commands are in our best interest.
But Deuteronomy 11 reminds us that God’s heart for his commands is not that he would be some kind of dictator with ridiculous or oppressive rules, but God’s heart for his commands is human flourishing. I encourage you to skim through this chapter again. What do we see over and over and over? God wants his people to be cared for, provided for, to have food and land and protection. And he himself wants to be intimately involved in providing that. God wants them to flourish. That kind of abundance is at the heart of his reason for giving his commands.
Jesus reflects on this in John 15:15-21. You might pause and read that.
The context is a close, loving relationship between God and his people. He is not some distant ruler who makes proclamations from on high, and then never visits you to learn how you are actually doing. How many of you work for companies whose decisions from corporate affect you every day, but they are distant, maybe even headquartered in another country? In politics we say, “Harrisburg did this or that. Washington is doing this or that.” Those seats of power seem distant, disconnected, and it makes us grumpy when the decisions that happen there affect us negatively.
God is different. God is close. He is right there in the land, in their midst, affecting things. He has always been right there. We Christians know this as well, as our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and so Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6, “Honor God with your body.” We see, therefore, the same kind of principle in the New Testament. God has our best interest in mind. When we obey his commands, we show we love him, and we find that his commands are not burdensome!
What do you fear? Even if you are the kind of person who is not afraid of hardly anything, do you have concerns? What bothers you? Maybe your personality really struggles with fears. I’ve talked in a previous post about my own struggles with anxiety. I’ve come to realize I have triggers: health and financial concerns, home repairs, and difficult relational situations can all intensify my struggle with fear and anxiety. I’ve learned that it can be hard to love God in the midst of fear. As we continue this series studying Deuteronomy 11, we’ve seen in the previous two posts that Moses is encouraging the people to grow their love for God. If you haven’t read them, you might consider doing so, as they set the context for what we are going to study in this post. Moses addresses a significant concern about loving God in the midst of fear.
It seems that Deuteronomy 11 has 7 sections, and in the first three, Moses has been very positive. But that positive tone changes in Section 4. Look at verses 16-17.
The thing he wants them to do? In verse 16, he says, “do not to turn away from God or worship other gods.” Warning! Red flag.
And why does he not want them to turn away from God? Moses is pretty clear. In verse 17, he warns them, “then God will be angry and will not send rain, and you will not have food, and worse, you will perish from the Land.”
Yikes. Things just got negative. But notice that this is the shortest
section. Moses doesn’t dwell on it. He emphasizes the blessings, the positives,
as he was a good leader like that. No
scare tactics here. No heaping
guilt. But he does have to make them
aware of the truth. They need to be
informed of what will happen if they turn away.
If they turn away from God, it will be disastrous for them. This is some needed accountability.
But Moses doesn’t hammer on this. Instead, he wants them to love and obey God, so he fills their hearts and minds with the many good reasons for following God’s way. Thus, quickly, he returns to another positive section.
The fifth section is found in verses 18-21.
What is the thing he wants them to do? In verse 18, he has some practical advice
about the commands of God. He says, “fix
these words in your hearts and minds.”
Why does he want them to do this? He
explains his reasoning in verses 19-21, “Teach them to your children…so that
your days and the days of your children may be many in the land.”
While this is the only section in which he doesn’t mention the word “commands”, that is what he wants them to fix to their hearts and minds. When he uses the word “fix”, he is not referring to fixing something that is broken. He is using “fix” in the sense of affixing something, putting something securely in place. Those commands of God, and the ideas of loving God, serving him with all your heart and soul, those things should be fixed securely in place in your lives. When you do that, he says, as he has said numerous times, the people will be fixed securely in the land for a long, long time. Remember the axiom we talked about at the beginning of this series? “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” Do you see how what Moses is saying in this section might relate to that? Before we go any further making that connection, we have a few more sections of Deuteronomy 11 to work through. Keep following these posts, as we’ll discuss “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” soon! For now, let’s take a look at Section 6.
If you’ve been tracking along with the previous 5 sections, there should be no surprise what we will find in Section 6, which is verses 22-25.
Guess the thing he wants them to do? Yeah, there it is again in verse 22: observe these commands, love the Lord, walk in his ways, hold fast to him. Sound familiar?
And why does he want them to love God and observe his commands? Think he can find any new reasons by now? Well, he does. In verse 23, he says God will drive out the nations before them. In verse 24, God will enlarge their territory. And in verse 25, no one will be able to stand against them. God is speaking to the fear in their hearts. They had people in their camp who did not think it was a good idea to enter the Promised Land because the nations already there were so powerful. There were some in Israel who were afraid, thinking this Promised Land idea was actually a suicide mission. So here is God saying, “Yeah, there are nations larger and stronger than you. But they aren’t large enough or strong enough to deal with me.” This directly relates to verses 8-9. Remember that interesting “so that” phrase in verse 8? There God says, “Observe my commands, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land.” Here in verses 22-25 he is saying something very similar. “Observe my commands, and I will give you victory.” God will be their strength!
How do we grow our love for God in the midst of our fear? We stay true to him, securely establishing his ways in our lives, and in the lives of the next generation. When we are faithful to him, when we follow his ways, he addresses our fear by saying that he will be with us and strengthen us. God is not promising to make life perfect, but he is saying that in the middle of our fear and struggle, we can trust in him. As we learned recently in the 1 Peter series, “Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.” I’m not saying that casting our anxiety on God is easy. I still struggle with it. But what we clearly see in these teachings from both the Old and New Testament is that we can depend on him in the middle of our fear. I suspect that it will take effort, including some failures, but as we keep striving to trust in him, we will grow in our ability to know what to do and how to do it. Keep striving!
For me, one practice that has been so helpful in striving to cast my anxiety on God is the habit of contemplative prayer. If you are not familiar with contemplative prayer, I would recommend a guide. For me, that guide has been in the form of books and phone apps. Here are some recommendations:
First of all two books I would recommend are:
Into The Silent Land: The Practice of Contemplation by Martin Laird
Be Silent. Pray: An Anxious Evangelical Finds Peace With God Through Contemplative Prayer by Ed Czyewski
Also good are:
The Listening Life: Embracing Attentiveness in a World of Distraction by Adam S. McHugh
Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God by Dallas Willard
The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence
Beginning to Pray by Anthony Bloom
Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now by Walter Brueggeman
As said above, I have noticed that I cannot just say internally, “I will practice contemplative prayer.” I need a guide. And for me, Czyewski’s suggestions of finding smartphone apps proved quite good. Here are the apps I use:
Calm. A mentor recommended this. It attempts a non-sectarian approach to meditation, breathing, etc. But you will hear from time to time, in the guided meditations, references to eastern religious thinkers. I never found it to be anti-Christian, though. I also found that I could adapt it to focus on Christ as needed. The free version limits access. One year I paid for a subscription and that was great. If possible, I recommend that. I think the recommendations about breathing are excellent, but rather than a Buddhist emptying of the mind approach to meditation, I simply replaced that a biblical filling of the mind kind of meditation on God’s word. See the Centering Prayer app below. The 7 Days of Calm is a great place to start.
Sacred Space. This is a guided prayer app that combines meditation on Scripture and thoughtful questions about encountering the presence of God, based on the practice of St. Ignatius of Loyola. I’ve been impressed. But I’ve also found it is easy to skim through it super-fast.
Reimagining the Examen. This is another guided prayer app, specifically based on Ignatius’ Prayer of Examen. It is topical, so each day a bit different, and yet always focuses on accountability for our thoughts and our relationship with the Lord. More in depth than Sacred Space, I’ve found. Maybe a good way to end the day.
Prayer Mate. A supplication app. Great for organizing prayer requests.
Centering Prayer. Very simple app for connecting with the presence of God and listening for him. Based on Centering Prayer, which I know some Christians find controversial. Tim Keller, for example, in his book, Prayer, is really hesitant. But I think his concerns are out of line. As I have learned about contemplative prayer, I have started using this app daily and Calm less and less.
Yesterday I referred to the axiom, “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” but I didn’t talk about how it matters. This week we are looking at Deuteronomy 11, and how to grow love for God, and I promise that I’ll eventually explain how the axiom about the apple tree relates to this. But today, we look at more ways to grow our love for God. If you didn’t read yesterday’s post, you can do so here.
Yesterday we looked at the first of seven sections in Deuteronomy 11, verses 1-7, where Moses tells the people of Israel that they can grow their love for God by remembering what he did in their lives. That brings us to the next section, which covers verses 8-12.
In this second section, the thing he wants them to do is found in verse 8: observe all God’s commands. Sounds similar to the first section, doesn’t it?
But this time, Moses’ rationale changes. Why does he want them to observe all God’s commands? Do you see he uses two “so that” statements? Observe the commands…so that…what? The first is in verse 8: “so that you may have strength to go in and take over the land.” That is really interesting to me. Observing God’s commands, Moses says, gives them strength.
The second “so that” is in verse 9. “Observe all the commands, so that you may live long in the land.” Observing God’s commands, then, will give them strength and longevity in the Promised Land. Then Moses reminds them that the Promised Land is amazing, so they will definitely want to be there. In verse 10, he says the land is not like Egypt, which they had to work hard to irrigate. In verses 11-12, he says the land across the Jordan will be irrigated from heaven by the Lord. If they obey God’s commands, then, it will be like they get a bonus farmer with super farming powers that will be working along with them.
Once again, God is prominent in Moses’ rationale. In the first section, God was their savior. In this second section, he is their provider. But they have to obey his commands to access his blessing.
That brings us to Section 3, which covers verses 13-15. Go ahead and read those verses for yourself. Are you starting to see the pattern? Let’s take a closer look.
What is the thing he wants them to do? Yup, there it is again in verse 13: “faithfully obey the commands, love God, serve him with all your heart and soul.” Seems familiar!
And what will the result be? In verse 14, if they obey and love God, then God will send rain and they will have a wonderful harvest. Likewise, in verse 15, God will provide grass for cattle. The conclusion? If they obey and love him, they will have food! That’s pretty important in the days before supermarkets, especially considering the people he is talking to here. What have they just been through…for 40 years…in the food department? Nothing but manna and quail and a struggle to get clean water in the wilderness. We can’t imagine what that must have been like. It must have been glorious for these Israelites to have their minds filled with visions of a variety of tasty vegetables, fruits, grains, meats and drinks in the Promised Land. God is saying, “people, if you obey my commands and love me and serve me with all your heart, it will be a buffet every day for you.”
What have we seen so far? The people have loads of good reasons to love and obey God. His work saving them in the past, and the dream of their own land, and a bountiful one at that, in their future. Blessings abound for those who obey the Lord, Moses says. How, then, can we grow our love for God? By looking to him as our provider! God will strengthen, sustain and supply.
How will you look to God as your provider? One practical way is to obey his command to be generous. When we practice generosity in our lives, we are saying, “God, I will gratefully, joyfully, give back to you from the blessing you have poured out on me.” Some ways to practice generosity is through giving to your church family, or giving to local charitable organizations serving those in need in your community and around the world. Giving generously might require you to live more simply, to spend less on your selfish, so that you have more disposable income to give away. Will you take a step of faith and give generously, showing that you love God and depend on him as your provider?
Another way to depend on God as your provider is to follow him in ways that are difficult for you. Maybe it is working with a person or group that irritate you or rub you the wrong way. Maybe it is a ministry in your church that needs help, and you would much rather do something else, but you choose to lend your time and talent to that ministry anyway. By the way, in almost any church family, children’s ministry needs people to serve. Spend a Sunday per month in the nursery. Teach in a children’s class. You just might find that you learn more preparing to teach than realize! Or maybe there is a family in your neighborhood that needs help with yard work or cleaning. You have a lot of yard work and cleaning of your own to do, and you really don’t have time to help others, but you could choose to do so anyway. Are there any people from different ethnicities or cultures, or those who speak a different language, and they seem disconnected from your community? How could you help them connect?
How will you show your dependence on God, who is your provider?
Have you ever heard the phrase, “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”? What does it mean?
That children or young people tend to behave like their parents. It happens all the time. And it is not just that we look like our parents, or sound like them, but that we tend to have similar beliefs as our parents, and we have similar ways we act on those beliefs. Of course, this is not always the case. Most of us are at least somewhat different from our parents, and some of us are very different from our parents.
But how many of you adults have had that heart-shocking experience, after previously boldly proclaiming that you would never ever be like your parents, you then heard yourself say something that your parents said, or do something your parents did? And it hits you like a thunderclap, “Oh my word…that’s what my mom would say!” Or “That’s what my dad would do.” It’s like this:
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. We become like our parents, and we can’t help it. Why? What is going on in this phenomenon? It’s not complicated. Kids spend a lot of time with their parents, and whether intentionally or unintentionally, the thoughts, actions, opinions, and behaviors of parents rub off on their kids. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and even friends, you too can have a great influence.
That is a reality check. It means that we simply will influence the next generation. How we spend our time among our young people matters. They will become like us. And that is what Moses turns to in Deuteronomy 11.
Deuteronomy Chapter 11 is a transitional chapter in this book. It serves as a clear reminder to the people of Israel that they have a covenant treaty with their God, Yahweh.
There are seven sections in this chapter, and this week we briefly survey each one. In each section Moses wants the people of Israel to do something, and he always gives them a rationale for why he wants them to do that thing. In each section, let’s look at the action he wants them to do, and see if we can discover his rationale.
The first section is verses 1-7.
What is the thing he wants them to do? He tells them in verse 1: Love God by keeping his…commands always.
What is his rationale for wanting them to love God by keeping his commands? We find that in verses 2-7. He starts with the word, “Remember”. “Remember God’s majesty,” Moses says, “God’s mighty hand, his outstretched arm.”
Then he repeats a phrase. Do you see it? In verses 3-6, he says this phrase in each verse: “what he did”. He is talking about God, what God did. Put that word “Remember” from verse 2 together with the phrase “what he did” repeated in verses 3-6, and you get a clear message from Moses to the people: “Remember…what he did!”
Verse 3 – What he did…in Egypt
Verse 4 – What he did…through the Red Sea
Verse 5 – What he did…in the desert
Verse 6 – What he did…to the disobedient
Remember what he did! And what did God do? Moses is saying, “He saved you, Israel! Over and over, he saved you.”
Then in verse 7, Moses sums up this concept by saying, “with your own eyes you saw the great things the Lord has done.” In this section, then, Moses is saying, when you look back over your life, and you remember God’s faithfulness and provision in your life, you’ll be motivated to show your love for him by keeping his commands.
How about you? What has God done for you? Take some time today to review your life. Remember what he did. Make a list, even if it is a Top 5, and write it out, just like Moses did for Israel. And spend some time thanking God for what he did. Allow that Top 5 to inflame your heart with love for God.
What does this have to do with the phrase, “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”? Stay tuned!
Last year we started studying the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy. Then I went on sabbatical. We had covered the first nine chapters of Deuteronomy.
Now we’re
heading back in!
For the most part, though, we’re going to study Deuteronomy differently than we did last year. Last year we went chapter by chapter, verse by verse. But beginning with Deuteronomy 10, the book changes. It becomes quite topical, and some topics are repeated in numerous chapters. So as we restart this study, we’re not going verse by verse. We’re going theme by theme. Or topic by topic, as you will see in this post.
We left off last year having studied chapters 8 and 9, and if you glance at them, you can see what Moses is doing. He strongly urges the people to love the Lord, to follow the Lord, and remember how awfully they sinned against the Lord.
The really bad sin was when they made a golden idol in the shape of a calf and began worshiping it, saying things like they wanted to go back to Egypt, where they had been slaves?!?!? We don’t have time to get into all the details of that story, but God was so upset at this, that he said to Moses, the game was over. He was going to destroy the entire nation and start over again with Moses. But chapter 9 ends with Moses reminding the people that he interceded for them, begging God to give them another chance.
With that we come to chapter 10. What did God think about Moses wheeling and dealing?
Read chapter 10, verses 1-11. God relents! And there is a new beginning.
With that Moses wraps up the story of Golden Calf. But why would Moses retell this story? Remember that here in Deuteronomy, the people are on the verge of entering the Promised Land. That Golden Calf incident happened 40 years prior. Many of the people hearing Moses tell that story were not even there when it first happened. So Moses has a good reason to bring that up: he wants them to remember their past. They are not getting into the Promised Land because they were so good and special and powerful. Nope, they are getting into the Promised Land because God chose them, forgave them, and helped them. Moses wants the people to have a proper dependence on God, and to obey God and not make the same kind of nearly disastrous mistake their parents made.
That is why in the next passage, 10:12-22, Moses has some really important instructions for this new generation. Look at verse 12-13. Moses asks the people, “What does the Lord ask of you?” It’s a great question. One that we often ask as well. “Lord, what do you want me to do?”
He answers,
“Fear the Lord, walk in his ways, love him, serve him with all your heart and
soul, observe his commands and decrees.”
This is so
central. God wanted a loving connection
with his people. You can really see
God’s heart for his people in this passage.
He is saying to them, “I want to walk with you, and be with you, that
there may be genuine affection between us.”
He goes on
in verses 14 and 15 reminding the people that while God owns all of creation,
guess who he decided to make his special people? Israel.
Moses reminds them that God is the initiating force behind this
relationship. He started this when he
set his affection on their forefathers.
People like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Because of God’s choice, the people need to see how their relationship with God is unique. Because God chose them, they have some choices of their own to make. He says in verse 16 “Circumcise your hearts, therefore.”
Circumcision was a big part of Jewish culture. When God chose their forefather Abraham, God said the mark, the physical mark of their relationship with God, was that all males would be physically circumcised on the 8th day of the tiny little baby lives. You might think, Why in the world, of all the things that God could think of to mark his people, did he go with that one? We’ll never answer that question. But this passage in Deut. 10:16 reminds us of something so important. God actually has a deeper mark in mind. The circumcision of the heart. There the word “heart” is not referring to a person’s “blood-pumper”. It’s not like God is moving his focus from one physical part of the body to another. He also is not talking about emotion. Sometimes in our day we cover our heart when we get emotional and say, “Awww, that’s so precious.” But that is not what Moses is talking about. In the Hebrew conception, heart referred to your will.
I recently listened to a Bible teacher named John Ortberg talk about this. He said this: the heart that God is talking about here is your will. This is your ability to exercise dominion in the world. The ability to choose.
But, he said, while will is central to who we are, it is terribly weak. He referred to a scientist Valmeister who studied this. Valmeister did experiments on will, and he found that our will can get tired, like a muscle being used. Our will gets tired, when trying to deal with the stuff of life and especially when making hard choices. Valmeister found that while our will is good at making decisions, it is also terrible at overriding our habits. If we like to snack on sugary treats, and we do it every day, especially when we are stressed, our will is not good at helping us overcome that habit.
One thing,
though, is easy for the will. Surrender. We all think that death to self is
terrible and hard. Remember that Jesus said, unless we take up our cross and
die to ourselves, we cannot be his disciple?
We hear that and think how awful it sounds. Author Dallas Willard said that death to
one’s lesser self is so that a more noble and glorious self can be born. Our will was made to surrender to God.
Circumcision
of our hearts, then, is another way to say, “People, surrender yourselves to
God.”
And there is good reason to give yourself so completely over to God. Look at verse 17, we can surrender to God because there is no god like our God. He is the great God, mighty and awesome. Above all gods. When we surrender our lives to him, it’s not so bad. It would be a major sacrifice if Moses had said to the people, “circumcise your hearts for God,” and God turned out to be some second-rate middle-level deity. In the same way, it would be pretty pathetic if Jesus said, “Die to yourselves and follow me” if he ended up dying on the cross and staying dead, and never rising from the dead. But no, YHWH is the one true all-powerful God, and Jesus didn’t stay dead, but rose again to victory over death, victory over sin, victory over the devil. For us to surrender to him means we are giving our lives to the most powerful one who loves us. That’s pretty awesome. We can surrender to that!
As Moses continues through this passage, he describes God, and it becomes more and more clear how great it is to surrender ourselves to God. Because there is none like him, God has some really interesting points of view about life. Look at verse 18. God has an eye out, a heart, for those in need. He defends the fatherless and the widow, loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. What an amazing God!
But it is
not just God who cares for those in need.
Israel is to follow God’s heart, Moses says in verse 19, loving the
alien, because they were once aliens. What a great God we have. He cares for all people, and has a special
heart for those in need. When we give
ourselves over to him, we will also care for those in need.
As we come to the end of this chapter, verses 20-22 give us a quick recap. Fear God, serve him, hold fast to him. He is your praise, he is your God, who performed mighty wonders. Moses reminds Israel of the last 450-500 years of their nation’s existence. When they first went to Egypt, they numbered 70 people. Now they are in the millions, and God rescued them. In other words, they have every reason to circumcise their hearts, to surrender to God, and to follow his heart, which is a passionate desire to help those, like they once were, people in serious need of help.
In the coming chapters, Moses wants the people to get this, so he brings it up again, and again. Turn to chapter 15. I’m not going to read all of this. Because we’re going to jump to chapter 19 as well. In these chapters, I want us to see how Moses continues the theme of God’s heart for those in need.
Look at verse 1 of chapter 15, and the old NIV, says, “At the end of every seven years, you must cancel debts.”
Do you have debts? Doyou have debts that have been going on for at least seven years? And did you just think, I’m going to head over to my bank tomorrow, and I’m going to plop my Bible down and have a little talk? Please don’t do that. They probably won’t be too thrilled with you trying to get out of a legally-binding document like a mortgage.
This verse
is much better translated “Every seventh year you shall make a release.” God instituted in the nation a regular
pattern of release. It did include
debts, but also slavery, also land and more.
One scholar says, “The laws of release…provide a structure in Israel for
maintaining a balance and equity in society, and especially for giving access
to the wealth of the land to those who had not property rights of their own.”
(McConville, 257)
Hear that? You just heard God’s heart. God’s heart is sometimes unexpected. God’s heart sometimes doesn’t jive with the economic standards of the day. In Israel, God wanted to make sure the people who owed money were not taken advantage of, or that paying back the loan didn’t destroy them. And furthermore, look at verse 4. “There shall be no poor among you.”
Look at
verse 7. “If there are poor among you,
do not be tight-fisted or hardhearted.
Rather be openhanded. Freely lend
whatever they need!” Verse 10, “give
generously to him, without a grudging heart.” Verse 11, “I command you to be
openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.” Over and over God is showing his heart. We can really learn about God in these
chapters of Deuteronomy! God has a heart
for those in need.
Remember this all goes back to the fact that Israel did not earn their wealth and prosperity on their own. God chose them, God saved them, God protected them, he forgave them when they sinned, and he brought them to a land that was capable of making them rich. God did it all for them. They had been enslaved and poor and powerless. Now God is saying, remember where you came from. Remember how I saved you. Remember my heart for justice for those who are now like you used to be. And love them, and give to them, and reach out to them.
In 15:12-18 this theme continues. Again, hear the word release. This time, he says, release servants. And don’t just let them go, saying, “Good riddance, hope you can fend for yourself.” No. Give them what they need to make a new start. Look at verses 13-15. “Supply them liberally! Give to them as the Lord has blessed you.”
Now jump to chapter 19, and we continue to see God’s heart for justice. This time with a really interesting idea: cities of refuge. In chapter 4, we learned that Moses created the first cities of refuge. What in the world were cities of refuge?
Basically, Moses tells us in chapter 19 that cities of refuge were places of refuge for people who caused the unintentional death of another.
You might think, isn’t that rare, though? Why is God so concerned about accidental death, something that hardly happens? This one is personal for me. On this blog I previously told my story, as I accidentally caused the death of an Amish lady in a car accident that was my fault when I was 17.
When you lose a loved one it is hard. When the cause of death is irresponsibility, that is even harder. God know this. He knows how bad it hurts when you lose a loved one, even when they die of old age. But when they die unexpectedly, younger, and because of people’s stupidity or irresponsibility, it hurts even more. People who lose a loved one that way might take revenge. God had Moses and the people of Israel create cities of refuge where people could flee to their safety. Again, we see God’s heart for those in need.
In chapter 19:14, there is another illustration of God’s heart. Don’t move boundary stones. Don’t try to cheat property lines. Here in America, boundary lines are set by law, and they are highly mapped out. But even then, have you ever had a neighbor try to snag a few extra feet?
Our property has a rental property on one side, and different people have come and gone. Each time a new tenant arrives, I talk with them about our garden. I call it our garden, but it is almost entirely on the rental property’s back lawn. So I explain that we have an agreement with their landlord to use it, and of course they can too. We planted berries back there, and they are welcome to them. So far it has worked great. But what would be wrong is if I tried to say, that is my property! That would be cheating.
God’s heart is a heart of justice, no cheating. Likewise, in verses 15-21, God says that people accused of a crime must have testimony established by two or three witnesses. Again, we see God’s heart is for justice. No lying.
Moses in chapters 10, 15, and 19 presents to us that God is a God of justice. God cares about the poor and needy, the fatherless, the orphan, the widow and the alien. He cares about fairness and equity. And we should too. We should circumcise our hearts, and surrender to him, which means will we learn his heart, think like he thinks, do what he does. We build our lives on his ways.
What is amazing is how this passion for God’s heart worked its way into the early church. Jesus regularly taught about helping the poor and needy, and he himself ministered to them frequently. So when you go to the story of the beginning of the church in Acts 2, what do you find? Turn to Acts 2:42-47.
In Acts 2:44-45, they were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Sounds just like God’s heart in Deuteronomy!
Turn over to Acts 4:32, and we see this again. Such amazing generosity! Those first Christians had circumcised their hearts, were surrendered to God, and were being so giving.
Turn to Acts
6:1, and see how they talk about a ministry of caring for widows? They got it.
The church knew God’s heart for those in need, and they did what they
could do reach out.
When our church did a mission trip to Chicago in 2010, to work with our sister church there, it opened my eyes to God’s heart for justice. I had been through four years of Bible College, and then through a seminary master’s degree, and somehow I barely heard anything about this. In Chicago, they walked us through their neighborhoods and opened our eyes to injustice, and they also walked us through the Bible and opened our eyes to God’s heart for justice. We looked at passages like we are studying in this post, and so many more. It was embarrassing to me to realize that as a student of the Bible for so many years, I had missed this. And it wasn’t like it was some small emphasis in Scripture that is easy to miss. It is all over Scripture. I am so thankful for how my church family has sought to identify the injustice in our community and seek to address it.
This is why
Faith Church is so supportive of Conestoga Valley Christian Community Services,
which operates a food and clothing bank.
This is why we have been a location for the summer lunch club. This is why we support Homes of Hope. This is why we give to the Conestoga Valley
Ministerium Helping Hands fund, which provides support of those in need in our
community.
This is why
we support the idea of abolishing slavery around the world. This is why we
support refugee resettlement. Because
that is God’s heart.
What will it look like for you to so appreciate God’s heart for you, for rescuing you, for saving you, that you allow his heart to grow within you, so you that you reach out to those in need? Do you need to be more giving, more generous, more involved in helping people?
Author John Dickson tells the following story in his book Humilitas: there were four people traveling on a small airplane when its engines lost power. The plane started diving to the ground at an alarming speed. The pilot turned to other three, with a dire look on his face, “There are four of us but only three parachutes. It’s my plane, my parachutes, and I am taking one.” The others agreed. The pilot strapped on the chute, and jumped to safety. Left on the plane were a brilliant professor (a rocket scientist no less), an elderly pastor, and a backpacker. After watching the pilot jump, the scientist spoke right up saying ,“I am one of the greatest minds in the country, I must survive. I will take the next parachute.” The others agreed. The scientist prepared himself and launched out.
The elderly pastor spoke next. He looked at the younger backpacker and said, “I’ve lived a long life. I do not fear death. You take the last chute.” She stopped the pastor right there and said, “No! It’s fine! The professor just jumped out with my backpack strapped on!”
Do you know anyone like that professor, thinking they are so awesome, so important?
For the past few months, Faith Church has been studying the biblical letter 1st Peter, and in this post we come to the final verses. 1 Peter 5:1-11. There are few verses after that, but we covered those when we did an overview of the book at the beginning. In this section Peter has something to say to the professor in the story, and as we’ll find, what Peter says is for all of us as well.
As we see in Verse 1, Peter begins by addressing the elders in the church.
If you could go back in time to Peter’s day and ask a first century kid playing on the road outside Peter’s house, “What does this word ‘elder’ mean?”, they would say, “old person”.
But Peter is speaking about the leaders of the church. And because, generally-speaking, older people have the experience and maturity of walking with Christ for many years, they are often candidates to be leaders in the church. It doesn’t automatically exclude younger people from leadership. There certainly can be younger people who are mature in Christ and could serve well as leaders. And Peter did not mean to automatically include all older people. There are some older people who are spiritually immature and should not be leaders. But because of the general principle that older people are mature, Peter used the word “elder” when talking about this role of leader. “Elder” became synonymous with church leadership. At Faith Church we use the word “leader” but it is the same concept as the elders that Peter was talking about. Those who are spiritually mature and leading the church.
Peter expands this idea further in verse 2 when he says, “watching over.” If you could go back to that road outside Peter’s house, and ask a kid what “watching over” means, they would say “a caretaker”. Peter is once again referring to the leaders of the church. He is saying that elders are caretakers of the church. Now that we know who Peter is writing to, before we go further, Peter comments about himself.
He says in verse 1 that he is a witness of Christ’s sufferings. Peter was there for all three years of Christ’s ministry. Peter was a first-person witness of Jesus’ life and ministry. Thus Peter is reestablishing his credentials for his friends. He has some really important things to tell them, and he wants them to trust in what he has to say. Also take note of what he doesn’t say here. He could have called himself “Apostle”, like he did at the beginning of the letter. But he doesn’t this time. He put himself on the same level as them, elder. What does that tell you about Peter? He is different from the professor in the airplane story. And he wants these leaders to be different too.
Having established his credentials and audience, look at verses 2-3. He is going to teach them the attitude and actions behind how elders should lead. If you just thought, “Oh, so this teaching is for the elders, the leaders? Then this isn’t for me,” I ask you to still stay with me. Why? Because you might be a leader someday. You might want to be a leader. Some people say that it is arrogant to want to be a leader, that you shouldn’t want to be a leader. Well, look at 1 Timothy 3:1, where Paul says, “if anyone sets his heart on being a leader, he desires a noble task.” That means it is okay to desire to be a leader. It is a noble task! Furthermore Peter is going to share principles that apply to all people in a church family.
So let’s listen in to what Peter says.
First, elders, be shepherds. We don’t have shepherds in our culture like they did. It was an actual job then, and we hear about it in the Bible. These were people who walked around vast meadows caring for sheep.
Thus Peter calls the people of the church, “the flock under your care”. This is why in church lingo, we often hear about a church called a flock. It sounds weird to the modern American ear, and we don’t have to use that terminology. But it gives leaders a picture of their role. Leaders, care for the people in your church family.
Here me on this. It is not the pastor’s job to do all the caring. But it is the job of all the leaders, Peter says. Sure the pastor is a leader too, and should care. But it is a group role.
One author I agree with said that 85% of care in a church should be administered by people other than the pastor. Depending on the size of the church, maybe the pastor or pastoral staff can handle 12-13%. The remaining 2-3% represents the situations that require professional counseling. Leaders, we need to be caring teams.
Peter has more to say to leaders. There is a wrong attitude that Leaders must not have. As he continues, look at what he says not to do:
Lead or serve, not because you must (though sometimes you must)
Do not be greedy
And do not lord it over those entrusted to you.
In contrast, Peter says, leaders should have the right attitude: willingness, eagerness to serve, and to be an example. Leaders reading this post, evaluate yourselves using Peter’s principles. How are you serving? What is your motivation?
Because a day is coming, Peter says in verse 4: the Chief Shepherd will appear! In verse 2 Peter said that leaders are shepherds. Now he tells the whole story. Leaders are actually under-shepherds. Leaders in the church, including the pastors, are not the actual top leaders. They are followers of the Chief Shepherd!
And so leaders in the church, Peter tells us that we should learn from Jesus how to lead. We do things his way. We are not in it for prestige or power or money. Instead we are eager and willing to serve, to do the dirty work, to give ourselves for those we lead. You know what that means? Humility. Leaders must be humble.
I once had a pastor of another church tell me about the top leader in his church. That leader was a wonderful example of what Peter is describing here. That pastor said that leader was willing to clean up vomit and dirty diapers in the nursery. That leader had a heart to serve.
And what is the result of that kind of leadership, Peter mentions? Look at verse 4. Those leaders receive a crown of glory that would never fade. I suspect Peter is primarily speaking metaphorically here about the concept of honor. In his day there was a famous Olympics kind of event called the Isthmian Games, and the winners would receive a flimsy crown of parsley leaves. For leaders who follow the Great Shepherd well, who serve well, there will be honor that will never fade.
But it is not just leaders that Peter wants to talk to. In verses 5-7 there are a couple more groups of people. First young men, and Peter here almost certainly meant all people of the church, men and women, who are not elders or leaders.
He says one thing to you: be submissive to those who are older. Submissive?!?! Not a word we like. But there it is. It carries the idea of obedience. It is God’s will that the church will submit to and obey the leaders. That takes humility. Are you seeing a theme yet?
The next group Peter talks to is in the second half of verse 5. “All of you.” The young, the old, the men, the women. Leaders, non-leaders. Everyone!
He says, “Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another.” There’s that word again. Humility is all over this passage. Humility is clearly one of the most important traits that Christians should be known for. When people think of you, do they think, “That person is humble”? Peter is using a word image here. This word, scholars tell us, “refers to a servant putting on an apron before serving.” We are to see ourselves that way, serving one another. Show humility to one another, Peter is saying.
And he has a Bible verse to emphasize his point: Prov 3:34: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
I saw this clearly when our Faith Church and The Door Christian Fellowship came together at 2124 Old Philadelphia Pike. It required humility on both churches. Both had to sacrifice and make changes. Rod Glick, from The Door is going to share how it was from the perspective of The Door.
Rod: Humility & The Door
How many of you have taken a vacation where you stay with relatives or friends you know in the area? /How many have hosted a family like this?
Well, we are not on vacation, but this is the arrangement the Lord has provided for both of our churches. Understanding this, we humbly posture ourselves with gratitude.
We “The Door Christian Fellowship” are guests in the house of Faith EC Church.
While we have been invited to call this facility our home as well, we understand that for this arrangement to work we must honor and respect not just the facility but also each of you.
Humility has its root in the Latin word “Humilis” meaning “low”. Not low self-esteem, but a willingness to put another before yourself. Like the bow and gesture, “you first,” with the sweep of your hand.)
This is also known as “Love”.
To know that all of our actions, expressions, body language, attitude, etc.… will be seen and known by you, and yours by us, requires a posture of daily humility (Love) by all of us toward each other.
We have experienced this and are so blessed to walk with you (Faith Church) in this way.
And Faith Church has been so blessed to walk with The Door these past two years as well. We had rented to other congregations before, and each time it required some flexibility, but frankly, only a minute amount. Welcoming The Door meant a more substantial arrangement. I continue to be so thankful for how Faith Church approached things like moving rooms around, which had the wonderful byproduct of getting rid of piled up junk. And both churches changed our worship service time by 30 minutes. We have been sharing space, which has meant that sometimes groups from each church have requested to use the same space at the same day and time, and have had to be flexible. And you have handled it with great humility.
Now Peter is on a roll. He has clearly shown us his theme. Humility. And he keeps going into verse 6 with it, where he says, “Humble yourselves under God’s mighty hand.” Christians are people who lead with humility, who practice humility with one another, and of course in our most foundational relationship with God, we humble ourselves before him.
Humility is scary because some of us have been mistreated. When we humble ourselves before people we are putting ourselves in a place of vulnerability with them. It is a trusting place, and they can betray that trust. When you have trusted someone, when you have been humble, and yet you have been mistreated, it hurts so badly. Maybe you told them something deep and personal, and they didn’t keep it confidential. Maybe you loaned some money, and they didn’t pay it back. Maybe you employed them, and they were undermining you. Maybe you married them, and they were unfaithful to you. When you have been scarred, it can be hard to place yourself humbly in God’s hands. You wonder, Will God care for me?
And furthermore, humility is a clear indication of saying, “God I need you. Help. I don’t have what it takes.” And doesn’t that cut against our sense of individualism and pride? But Peter is right. We must humble ourselves before God, because he is the only true power and strength. And Peter says that in due time, he will lift us up. We are far too quick to try to lift ourselves up.
Want an example of how to humble yourself before God? Peter gives it in verse 7. Prayer and surrender: “Cast your anxiety on him.” The image here is of a heavy burden that we throw onto God. Too often, when we are anxious, we want to take matters into our own hands. But instead we give it over to God, because he cares. That is good news! We have a God who cares for us.
I’m glad he mentions anxiety because that is a hard area for me. I will be honest and say that earlier this week I had one really bad night with anxiety. Woke up a 2am to use the bathroom, and my anxious thoughts started going wild. It was about school, it was about house stuff, financial stuff, family, on and on it goes. I can struggle to cast my anxiety on God.
I know many of you have the same issue with anxious thoughts, because you have told me. It is hard to cast all our anxiety on him. But we can, Peter says. It might take practice, might take failing, but we can be humble and learn to surrender to our Lord. Because he cares, his hand is mighty, he will lift us up. I urge you to put in the work to learn to cast your anxiety on him. See a therapist if need be. Anxious thoughts, left unchecked, feel like they have a power of their own and are controlling us. Maybe you have been there. Peter says we can learn to throw our troubles onto God because he cares for us.
But there is a caution in this. People who are throwing their cares on God can grow apathetic, lethargic, as if we can’t do anything. Peter’s very next words are a corrective to that possible distortion. Look at verses 8-9. We need to be self-controlled and alert.
This is another example of humility, and with a special focus on the spiritual realm. Humility is being self-controlled and alert because Satan is powerful. He is no joke. Satan is an enemy, he is active, he prowls looking to devour.
No doubt, we need to have a balanced view of spiritual things. We can call too many things an “attack from Satan” when actually it was a life situation, or the consequences of our bad choices. That can be dangerous. If we are making a bad choice, a sinful choice, giving in to a bad habit, and we face consequences, then it is not a spiritual attack. If we call it a spiritual attack, we can be avoiding taking responsibility.
In the summer between my junior and senior year of college, I did a 13 week missionary internship in Guyana, South America. There Hinduism is a major religion, and there were temples all over the place. The missionaries told me of a mission team from an American church that had come to Guyana to work with them a few years prior. It was a week-long work and ministry trip. At one point the team had been walking through the same village where I was now working. An adult was watching people go to the Hindu temple for a worship service, and he started getting really upset. He said he was mad that Satan was deceiving all these people with false religion. But you know what? That guy, in his heart and mind, went from angry to aggressive. In fact, he got arrogant, thinking he could do something about it, and suddenly right there on the street he got knocked flat to the ground. In his arrogance, he had opened himself up to spiritual oppression and it affected his physically.
So what does Peter mean in verse 9 when he says resist the devil? Wasn’t that man resisting the devil? No. What does Peter mean? Peter says, stand firm in the faith (v. 9). He says be self-controlled and alert (8). Peter says be humble (6). Because God is the true power. And he will lift you up.
Rod again is going to talk further about this.
Humility is the polar opposite of Pride.
Pride is the main source of Anxiety because we take our circumstances into our own hands instead of humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God. We don’t believe that he will care for us.
Three forces come against Humility:
Our flesh – Pride self-will that set’s its course and sites on things other than God.God’s answer to this is always: Crucify it. Bring it to the Cross and say with Jesus, Not my will by yours.
Our Mind/Be Sober Minded – Thoughts and feelings that bring anxiety. Bring them into alignment with God’s word. Isaiah 26:3-4 “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.”2 Cor. 10:5 (Paraphrased) “Demolish an argument by taking your thoughts captive.” Is this thought defending my pride and flesh, or is this thought one of humble love that will build up the body?God’s answer: Submit your Mind to Christ
Satan and his demons – We know that Lions prey on the weak and isolated. This is Satan’s way as well. He wants to weaken you by temping your flesh and mind to dwell on God’s creation rather than Him, your creator. In doing this you become isolated and vulnerable.God’s Answer – Resist and stand firm in your faith and in the safety of your church family.
And what will happen if we stand firm in our faith? In verses 10-11 Peter gives God’s amazing promise! Our God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered, he will: restore you, make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be power, Peter says in verse 11, because he is the true power!
Do you see the thread in this passage? Humility
Elders lead with humility as under-shepherds who are led by the Great shepherd
Young people be submissive
All be humble to one another
All be humble before God
How do we clothe ourselves with humility toward one another?
Learn to grow your humility muscles. Two ways:
First, do some assessment: Years ago a person was telling me about how they were getting into conflicts with people at work, including their boss. And this was happening at multiple jobs they had. Things would start off great, then eventually they would have big problems and have to leave that job. They were so frustrated. And I asked, “Why do you think this is happening?” And they said, “Well, my coworkers and bosses don’t handle me well.” And I wondered if they meant they were being mistreated somehow. They admitted that they speak their mind to their coworkers and bosses, confrontationally, and they leads to conflict. I thought, OK, they’re getting to the root of the problem. What they said next kinda shocked me. This person said, “But that’s me, and they need to deal with it.”
Have you ever said that? “Well, that is just how I am.” As if there is no changing. That’s not the attitude of a follower of Jesus. That’s not humility. Followers of Jesus should be the first to confess and repent and strive to change. Get an accountability partner, someone who will speak truth to you, maybe a Therapist. Seek to change and grow to become more and more like Jesus.
Second, put yourself in places or with people that are new to you and even make you uncomfortable: read new things, eat new food, listen to new viewpoints, experience new places, especially places where you don’t know the language, or where you are the ethnic minority.
We can grow humility in our lives! We must, because humility is vital for a church family.
Being surprised or scared can be a
horrible feeling right? Even when the
surprise is a good surprise, there are some people that hate to be
surprised! Do you know anyone who makes
you promise that you will not throw them a surprise birthday party? Why? When you are in a groove, a routine, and
something interrupts you, it can feel like a loss of control. We hate that.
In our next passage in 1st Peter, he says that Christians are people that should not be surprised about something. Take a look at 1 Peter 4:12-19. In verse 12 Peter is once again addressing his Christian friends who are being persecuted for their choice to follow Jesus. He says, “Do not be surprised about it, as if something strange were happening.”
Imagine being persecuted because you are a follower of Jesus. Our normal viewpoint is that following Jesus is normal and good. To be persecuted, to be shunned, to endure physical bodily harm simply because we are followers of Jesus sounds crazy. If that happened to me here in Lancaster, I would be very surprised. I wouldn’t expect it. It would feel like my life is out of control.
But here Peter is saying to these Christians, “Don’t be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering as though something strange is happening to you.” I want to say, “Peter, what are you talking about? Don’t be surprised at pain and suffering? If they are not surprised, then how should they react? Are you saying they should expect it, as if it is normal? No way! They definitely SHOULD be surprised. That pain and suffering is wrong, it shouldn’t be happening.”
From our vantage point living in a
time and place where there is no persecution for our faith, of course we would
think that persecution is surprising and strange. But those Christians were not living in our
time and place.
And what is more, I suspect that Peter
is concerned that if those Christians become surprised at the suffering, and
they think it is strange, they will miss the opportunity to have the right
attitude about it. If they think pain
and suffering for Christ is strange, they will likely have the wrong attitude
about the persecution.
In my own life, and when I have interacted with people going through difficult situations, I have seen that often times when we are suffering, we hate it, we want it to be done, and can easily become bitter and angry and lose heart. We often look for someone to blame, and we get stuck on that. It is very, very easy to have the wrong attitude about suffering.
So Peter tells them not to be surprised, and he goes on in verse 13 to explain to them the right attitude they should have about their sufferings. And what he says is truly a shocker: they should rejoice that they participate in the sufferings of Christ! And thus they will be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.
But he doesn’t stop there. He says in verse 14 that if they are insulted
for Christ, they are blessed, and God’s Spirit rests on them.
Rejoice. Be overjoyed.
You are blessed. Huh?
That’s the kind of language that we
normally reserve for good things.
Birthday parties. Even surprise
parties. The blessing of new children,
weddings, baptisms, new jobs, raises, new houses, a vacation. You name it.
When really good things happen to us, we rejoice! We are overjoyed, and we say that we are
blessed.
The hashtag “Blessed” was a thing that was overused and is oftentimes still used when people post on social media about something good that happened in their life. But Peter isn’t talking about any of that good stuff. He is talking about painful trials. Suffering. Participating in the sufferings of Christ, he calls it. Why does Peter call suffering, “good stuff”?
Christians, Peter says, look at suffering differently. Very differently. For Christians, painful trials are not strange, they are cause for rejoicing! For Christians, suffering is not surprising or unexpected, it is cause to say “I am blessed!”
Just let that soak in.
We are so used to our comfy society, and we try so, so hard to avoid pain of any kind, that what Peter is saying might have us ripping out this page of the Bible. I get it, I am not a fan of pain. When things don’t go our way we can be quick to say “God, why are you doing this to me?”, and we generally don’t look at ourselves, that we might be the cause of our pain. Or we point to others as the cause, and then we get angry, hurt and bitter.
But read through this passage by Peter again, and what you will find is that there is nothing like that described here as the way to handle suffering and persecution. What Peter does say, instead, is that Christians will have a change in perspective about their pain. No blame, anger or bitterness, but rejoicing in the pain. But how?
Three of us from Faith Church are once again in training for a marathon. On Sept 30th, we will run 26.2 miles. That will be a painful day. But what most people don’t realize is that a marathon of 26 miles can only happen after much training. Our training plan is 18 weeks long, and by the end of the marathon, we will have run nearly 600 miles in those 18 weeks. For the last month or so, we have been saying that we are basically hungry, tired and sore all the time. My knees ache. My feet hurt. My muscles are just worn out. You might think, then why do you put yourself through that? It is a very good question, because I hate pain.
But there is something weird that happens, and it is unexpected. On the day of the marathon, after I have run about 21 or 22 miles, and all the way until mile 26.1, I am thinking this is stupid and dumb and I am never putting myself through this pain again. And then I see the finish line, and I cross it, and something comes over me, and I think this is the greatest thing ever, and I love it and I’m definitely going to run a marathon again. You know what I doing at that moment? Rejoicing through the pain. But how? My body still hurts. In fact it hurts bad. But you know what? My attitude has changed.
It’s all about attitude and perspective. Peter is telling them to have a new perspective, a new outlook. See pain as blessing. He says in verse 13 that it will mean extra joy when Jesus’ glory is revealed, which is another way of talking about some day in the future when they meet Jesus face to face. And further, in verse 14, they are blessed because, Peter says, God’s Spirit rests on them! That is amazing. Not only do they get the joy of going through what Jesus went through, and so identifying with him like that, they also are blessed because God’s Spirit is on them.
When you are facing suffering, a change of perspective will allow you to see the pain as joy and blessing.
But not all suffering should lead to rejoicing. Peter is quick to say in verse 15 that there is some suffering that does not qualify as rejoicing. That is suffering for doing wrong. He lists a couple sins in verse 15. If you suffer consequences for poor behavior, that is not good suffering. When we are suffering, it can be hard to be honest with ourselves. When we suffer we can think that is all bad and painful and want it to stop, and that can mess with our heads. We can start to think that it wasn’t our fault. We can start to blame others. We can start to say that we are being attacked by the devil. There are all sorts of things we can do to have the wrong attitude about suffering.
Peter says, don’t do that. Be honest with yourself about your
suffering. Own what is yours to own
about a situation, about a circumstance, about why there is suffering going on.
Be honest and own it. That requires a
lot of humility and maturity. It is hard
to swallow your pride and say, “I messed up.”
But, as he says in verse 16, if you suffering because of your faith in Christ, now that is a whole new thing. That is good suffering. And you can and should rejoice!
But the thing is that when we are
suffering for Christ, it is still suffering, still hurts, still stings, whether
physically, emotionally, or relationally.
If we are suffering for Christ,
if people are making fun of us for praying at meals, for going to Bible study,
for reading our Bibles, for going to church, for talking about Jesus, you name
it, then there is one simple thing we can do to make the pain go away.
Just stop following Jesus. Or more likely, we can hide the fact that we
are following Jesus.
Think about it, if you were one of these early Christians who used to participate in wild partying, just like we heard about in an earlier post about verses 3-4, and you have stopped that partying, your old friends might not like the new you, and they might heap abuse on you. That would not feel good, and depending on long the abuse lasted and how awful it was, the easiest thing to do to make the abuse stop would be for you to go back to your old ways.
A Christian would feel shame from their old friends. And in that culture that was a big deal. Scholars tell us that the Ancient Near East was an honor and shame culture. What that means is that saving face was a huge part of their society. People would go to great lengths to save face, including lying.
When Peter says, in verse 16, “do not be
ashamed,” he is using honor and shame language that would have spoken deeply to
his friends. I think it speaks to us
too.
Have you ever been ashamed of Jesus? For me the most obvious time in my life when I struggled with being ashamed of Jesus was in 9th grade in high school. I had gone to a private Christian all my life up to that point, and 9th grade was my first year in public school. I remember that gradually I stopped wearing my Christian school apparel. I stopped telling people I had previously gone to a Christian. I stopped telling them my dad worked at the Bible College. He was just a professor. I didn’t want to feel shame. I became way more concerned about what other kids in school thought, than what God thought.
That was wrong. But how about you? How do you feel shame for being a Christian?
Sometimes there are people in our world who loudly say they are Christians, and then maybe don’t act the way that Christ actually acted. That can cause shame for us because we may think, “I don’t want to declare I am a Christian, if that poor example of Jesus is what people think when they think of the name ‘Christian’.” There were certainly people like that in Jesus’ day; the Pharisees, for example. But Jesus’ followers were still to follow his ways and let it be known that they were living their lives because of their desire to follow Jesus. He didn’t tell the disciples to not follow God just because others were hypocrites about it. Instead he said, “follow me.”
Peter says we should praise God that we bear the name “Christian.” We should wear that label with pride. Of course we don’t actually wear “Christian” as a written label, such as a logo on a hat or shirt or flag. There is another, but still very physical, visible way we show we are Christians. We show we are genuine followers of Jesus by how we live our lives, and a huge way we can do that is to rejoice in the midst of suffering. I have watched many people in my church rejoice and faithfully praise God, even as they have battled difficult health and life situations. That has been amazing.
When people think of the word Christian, they should think, “Those are the people who rejoice in suffering.”
We Christians have a different perspective about our pain! We praise God, Peter says, that we bear the name Christian. And Jesus Christ had a different perspective about suffering. He said, “Blessed are you when men persecute you because of me. So rejoice.” When we rejoice in suffering, we carry Jesus’ name, we are Christians.
But just as Peter says that we praise God that we bear that name, he goes on to say in verse 17, “For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God.” I read that and I thought that I don’t like that sound of that. Judgment? In the family of God? What does he mean? Peter, in verse 17, is connecting back to verse 12. Peter is now rounding out a thought he started then. Look back and 12 where he says, don’t be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering.
Peter is literally using a word picture here of a trial by fire. It’s no joke. Fire purifies. But even more, a trial by fire is a test. Like walking on hot coals. Can you handle it? Would you do it? Will you pass the test? Or will you chicken out? The persecution those Christians endured, Peter says, is a test. And would they pass the test by remaining faithful?
In verse 17, then, he hearkens back to verse 12. It is time for judgment to begin with the family of God. By tying the two verses together, we get the idea that as these Christians were going through persecution, it was a kind of trial by fire to see if they were going to remain faithful to God or not. How would they handle the fiery trial? They were literally being tried and tested first. It began with them. And the testing would continue with everyone else, including those who do not follow the Gospel.
Peter quotes a proverb to support his view. In other words, he is using Proverbs 11:31 to say, “if you, the faithful follower of Jesus, are going through difficult trial, imagine how much more difficult it will be for the ungodly and sinner?” In verse 19, Peter’s conclusion is this: when you suffer for God, commit yourself to him, because he is faithful, and thus you though you are suffering, you can and should choose to do good.
We Christians have a different perspective about our pain. We need to be known for joy in the midst of suffering, and for doing good.
We
Christians view things differently.
We rejoice
in suffering.
We’re
unashamed about Jesus.
When we
suffer, we respond by doing good.
When we
are feeling like we have been treated wrongly, we rejoice and we serve
others! It would be very easy to succumb
to bitterness, or wallow in self-pity, but Peter says that when we are
persecuted, we choose to do good.
When you are feeling shame, choose to volunteer and serve others! Peter’s advice here is genius. He knows that when those Christians were being persecuted, it would be so easy for them to be self-focused and get stuck in a mindset of “how bad they have it”. But what does he tell them to do? Rejoice, be unashamed, and do good.
When you
get bad news about your health, think about how you can volunteer at the
clinic.
When you lose your job, think about how you might serve the homeless and those in need of food and clothing. Maybe you’ll have some time on unemployment where you can volunteer at a food bank or shelter!
When you
have a relationship go bad, call up the person you know who struggles with loneliness
and encourage them. Invite them over for
coffee, or take them out for lunch.
We Christians think about suffering differently! Our heart and focus needs to be on Jesus and on others, as we look for ways to rejoice and serve.
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. Sometimes church families are like any other family, and that means we can butt heads. We don’t always see eye to eye. With the exception of ethnic diversity, my congregational is quite a diverse. Young and old. Male and Female. Rich and poor. Conservative and Progressive. Introvert and extrovert. That diversity is a beautiful thing, but it means we often disagree.
In this post we continue through 1st Peter looking at chapter 4, verses 7-11, and Peter is talking about how church families can handle this kind of diversity.
Peter, in verse 7, starts by mentioning that “the end of all things is near.” What end?
We’ve been having blood moons in recent years, and people talk about how
blood moons signal that the end is near.
When we think about end times, our
minds jump to ideas like a rapture where Christians suddenly disappear, maybe a
time of tribulation, or a great war called Armageddon, but did Peter think of
“the end of all things” like that? What
images did he have in mind?
Almost certainly Peter is referring to the return of Jesus. We read in Acts 1, that right after Jesus returned to his father in heaven, angels appeared and told the disciples that Jesus would come back. But when? Peter says “the end is near”? Did Peter think that Jesus was going to return in his lifetime? Probably. The early church seemed to think this. It is mentioned more than once in the NT writings.
Think about that, Peter said this 2000 years ago. So does that mean Peter is misinformed or misguided? I don’t think so. It is best to understand “near” in the sense of “it can happen anytime”. As Jesus himself said to his disciples, “no one knows the time of his return, so be ready at all times.” Jesus himself said that the Kingdom of Heaven in near. “Near” is best understood as something that can happen at anytime, rather than something that will happen soon. We don’t know when it will happen, but it could happen anytime. So we must be ready.
Peter goes on to say that one way we show that we are ready for Jesus’ return is to be “sensible”. In the NIV that word is translated as “clearminded” which is to have understanding about practical matters and thus able to act sensibly.
Peter also says that we show that we
are ready for Jesus’ return by being “self-controlled”, and the word Peter uses
means the opposite of getting drunk. But
he is not just talking about alcohol. One scholar defines this as “to behave
with restraint and moderation, not permitting excess in general.” It is an
attitude that affects action. When we
say that someone is sober-minded, we don’t mean that they are simply not
getting drunk. We mean that they have an
attitude of self-control about their lives, and that attitude leads to
self-controlled actions. Peter is not
just saying “don’t get drunk” or “don’t get high”. He is saying something much larger or
broad. Be a self-controlled person.
When Peter talks about self-control he
is saying that we organize our lives in such a way to prioritize the mission of
God’s Kingdom. How do we do use
self-control to focus our lives on the mission of God’s Kingdom? Peter says that we pray. We make time in our
lives for spiritual practices so we can know God more, depend on him, and make
him the focus of our lives. But Peter is
not suggesting a legalistic, rigid approach.
I remember that when our two oldest were babies and toddlers; there were stretches where Michelle and I did not go to Sunday School because it was so difficult to get ready, and to place them in childcare for long stretches. Likewise, a friend recently told me the story about a phase in their lives where they had to get up really early for work, 5am. She wanted to have time alone with God, maybe reading the Bible and praying. But given that work schedule, it wasn’t going to happen even earlier. Every now and then I hear that we should sacrifice sleep in order to spend time with God. I’ve come to believe that sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is get good sleep. So my friend said her devotional times were on her days off. That’s okay.
What I’m saying is this: following the way of Jesus is not a legalistic thing. There are phases in life where it will look different, but what should always remain is the self-control to put his ways, his principles, the fruit of the Spirit, first. We won’t be perfect in that. But, that is the goal. To put his ways first.
Again, Peter says, “Because the end is near, be self-controlled, so that you can pray.” I wouldn’t have expected that. Why prayer? If the end is near, shouldn’t Peter be telling people to get out on the streets to invite more people to follow Jesus? I think Peter has something else in mind. A memory.
Could Peter be transporting us once again back to the night Jesus was arrested in the Garden, the night before he was crucified? We know that night was the most impactful and vivid of Peter’s life. He had many incredible moments with Jesus, but that night was etched in Peter’s mind. Remember what happened that night at the beginning of their time in the Garden? Jesus brought his disciples to the Garden. That alone was not unusual. It was a walk outside the city and Luke tells us that in Jesus’ final week, he went out there every night to pray.
Then in Matthew we read that he asked Peter, James and John to break away from the group and go a little further into the Garden. He said to them that he was overwhelmed with sorrow, to the point of death. Jesus was really going through it, the anxiety was intense. And specifically asks Peter, James and john to stay there and keep watch. This is Matthew 26:38. Jesus went a little farther from the disciples, fell with his face to the ground and prayed that famous prayer, “Father…not my will, but yours be done.” We don’t know how long Jesus prayed. If it was just the text Matthew gives us, it is a very short prayer. I suspect it was a good bit longer, because Jesus mentions “one hour in the next verse.” I also think it was a longer prayer because of what we learn next.
Matthew records that Jesus takes a break from praying, and goes back to check on Peter, James and John, and what does he find? They are asleep. He wakes them, and Matthew mentions that Jesus specifically speaks to Peter, “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?…Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing but the body is weak.” Then Jesus went back and prayed again, “Father…may your will be done.” And again he checked on the disciples and again they were asleep. This time he didn’t wake them, instead returning to prayer, praying the same thing. Finally Matthew says that he returned to the disciples a third time, waking them with, “Are you still sleeping and resting…Look, the hour is near.” Just as he was saying those words, Judas, the betrayer, arrived with armed men to arrest Jesus.
I think Peter remembers that night quite well. “The hour is near,” Jesus said. The exact same words that Peter uses in 1 Peter 4.7! “The end is near.” Just as Jesus called Peter and the disciples to watch and pray, now Peter is calling Christians to be self-controlled and pray.
These are parallel situations. Moments of intensity and ultimate destiny,
and where Peter failed to be self-controlled and therefore did not pray, he
wants something better for these Christians 30 years later.
But again I ask, prayer? Why prayer? Why then?
Because prayer roots us in the will and ways of God. Prayer says, “Lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil.” Prayer is a submission to God. Prayer is act that shows that we depend on God. In the middle of crisis, prayer is especially vital. Normally in crisis, we want to take matters into our own hands and resolve it. Prayer, however, hits the pause button and refocuses our lives on God, who is the true power. But when we are freaked out it is hard to pray! Maybe when we are so distracted, so anxious, our minds are out of control and we can’t pray. I have definitely felt that in moments of high anxiety.
We can be so emotional that we just can’t settle our minds enough to prayer. I believe this is where Peter is going with this. He remembered his own failure and wants these people to learn to depend on God during moments of crisis.
Or we become so distracted by the
things of this world that we set prayer aside.
We are literally too busy to pray, we say. But I know for myself that, while I can say
that I am so busy, and I feel so busy, I sure have time to watch TV daily,
check the news on my phone. So let us
make more space in our lives for prayer.
With this foundation of depending on God in prayers, Peter builds on that in verse 8, returning to a theme that we have seen multiple times in the letter: that the church family should love one another deeply. He quotes an Old Testament verse, Proverbs 10:12, “love covers a multitude of sins.”
This also quoted by James, and there are echoes of it in the famous love chapter 1 Cor. 13. What does it mean, that love covers over a multitude of sins? If you love someone you have to accept their sinful choices and be okay with them? This is very picturesque word. In Proverbs, it is the image of love as clothing that covers over sin. Forgiveness is very much a related concept, and in fact the Hebrew word used in Proverbs 10:12 is in some circumstances translated “forgive”.
Love can overlook faults, it doesn’t seek revenge, forgives. Love gives grace, and it doesn’t seek perfection. You know how some personalities rub you the wrong way? Love says that we accept the people who are difficult for us.
Remember that proverbs are not promises. Proverbs are principles that are generally true. They hold true in most cases, but not in all cases. So when Peter quotes this proverb, he knows that. He is not trying to say that love means we should somehow turn a blind eye to sin. What he is saying is that in a church family, we need to be gracious and forgiving.
But how do we know when to cover over the sin? I would submit that a big part of the answer to that question is how the sinning person responds. If they are repentant and humble and seeking to change, then let love cover over their sin.
But if they are unrepentant, repeating
their behavior, unwilling to submit to correction, then the most loving thing
to do is hold them accountable and create boundaries for them.
This is hard. We are not people who like boundaries. We flee boundaries. We want chances to start over, wipe the slate
the clean, as if the past was gone.
What, then, does repentance look like? I want to bring up a word called penance. We need to be people of penance. Penance means that you work hard to show you are sorry, that you are repentant. You are willing to do the hard work to heal a broken relationship, make real changes in your attitude, actions, and lifestyle choices.
Have any of you watched The Crown on Netflix? The final episode of season 2 tells the story
of John Profumo. Ever heard of him? Profumo was the British Secretary of State
for War in the 1960s and he fell into a sexual scandal that led to his
resignation.
Politicians and sex scandals. Sadly, we’ve heard that before many times, right? I read an article by writer AJ Jacobs who tells the untold story of what happened next that the episode of The Crown didn’t tell. And where political sex scandals are commonplace, the untold part of the Profumo story is unheard of. Still today. Though Profumo was well-connected and likely could have gotten a cushy job, he left public life and never fully returned. You know what he did? He began to volunteer at Toynbee Hall, a charity in London that seeks to alleviate poverty. He started by doing menial work, and over the decades…decades!…he became a primary fundraiser for the charity. He never sought office again. For the rest of his life he worked out of the public eye to serve the poor. He did this for fifty years. That’s penance. He knew he did wrong and made changes in his life that showed that.
Peter now goes on in verse 9 to say
that our love for one another should demonstrate itself in being hospitable to
one another without grumbling.
Look around your life: who needs hospitality? What is hospitality? The specific word that Peter uses is to be a friend to strangers, but notice how he also qualifies this word by adding “one another.” Showing hospitality to strangers. What strangers?
There are strangers around us. Refugees, tourists, and people in our neighborhoods and schools who we don’t know. I have been particularly convicted lately about the lack of ethnic diversity in my life. That concerns me because my local school district reports that it is 1/3 comprised of people of color.
Do we have eyes and hearts open to
practice hospitality to strangers? We
Christians should be leading the way in that!
We should be known for that!
But remember Peter’s qualifier, “one another”. He is primarily talking about how these Christians practiced hospitality or friendship with one another. The reality is that some people in our church family are strangers to you, or some feel very different from you.
In Peter’s day, these Christians were
very counter-culture. They were
following a religion that was very new and considered a cult. As we saw last week in verse 4, these
Christians were facing abuse because they were following Jesus.
So they had to break down the
norms. They had to create family where
there was none before. One author I read
said this, “In certain cultures that are strongly family-oriented, the bringing
of strangers into a house may be somewhat shocking. Yet Christians overcome these conventions
because God’s love has made them into a single great family.”
There is nothing wrong with spending a
lot of time with people you find enjoyable and are close with. But it is also important to reach out to
those who you are different than you, even people you butt heads with, and you
still reach out to them anyway and Peter says to do so without grumbling.
That’s family isn’t it? There are those within our natural families that are easier for us to connect with than others. There are those within natural families that we want to be with more than others. But, still we are family, and still those who are feeling alone, and those who are not, need to try to reach out to each other.
Then offer your friendship and hospitality, and this is the kicker!, without grumbling. I get it, helping people can be a great joy, but it can also get to a point where it can be tough. It can go on a long time, and over time the hospitality wears us down and we can grumble. Some people are easier to offer hospitality to than others.
But Christians are people who are self-controlled and loving and thus go beyond the difficulty and awkwardness! We are people who serve, and we serve some more, and we sacrifice. We get this strength to press on in love for the strangers among us by making time in prayer and by making the way of Jesus our priority.
That’s exactly where Peter goes next in verse 10. He says that you have each received a gift, and you are to use it to serve one another as a good steward of the manifold grace of God. What gifts? They are received gifts. Received from who? God. God has blessed each one us with a gift. And how are we to use these gifts? To serve others.
When the NIV says “faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms,” Peter is using the word “steward”. We are stewards of God’s grace. Stewards are not owners. We have been given a gift, but that doesn’t mean it is now our possession to do with what we want! God is just giving it to us as a privilege and honor, and we are to use our gifts the way he would want them to be use. They are gifts of God’s grace, Peter says, gifts that are graciously given to us, and in various forms.
So in verse 11 Peter talks about the two main categories of gracious gifts that God gives us to steward. Speaking gifts and serving gifts. Notice what kinds of gifts that Peter is not talking about. Not the miraculous. Not healing, not speaking in tongues, not prophesying. The gifts he is talking about are gifts that minister in a church family: speaking and serving
First of all the Speaking gifts. What speaking? Teaching, preaching.
When we use the gift of teaching and preaching and speaking into someone’s life, Peter says, it is like an oracle of God. Or speaking the very words of God. Wow. Does that mean if I speak, I am guaranteed to be speaking the words of God. No. But Peter is saying “do it AS one speaking,” meaning that we should see the weight and responsibility of it. The impact should be to glorify God, to encourage people in God’s direction.
Next are gifts of Serving.
Who are you choosing to serve in our church family? Who are you reaching out to? Each of us should be ready and able to answer this. Who are you serving? Peter says, serve with the strength God provides, so that God may be praised through Christ.
Note that the focus on this is clearly God, for the use of both categories of gifts. Peter wants the focus on God. Not on ourselves. Not on our comfort. God and his ways are to be our priority. As a pastor, I have the distinct blessing of being able to see so many ways that many in my church are reaching out, are serving, are sacrificial to others within this church family. I am so grateful for that. Keep at it.
So whether the person next to you in church is old or young, Democrat or Republican, male or female, and any other category, let us sacrificially love one another to keep our focus not on ourselves, but on God.
I want to end with this quote that my wife found in a Beth Moore study she’s doing. In it she is speaking about discipleship, but I think you will see the connection.
“Discipleship involves a constant volleying between being apart and being a part. To pursue deeply satisfying intimacy with Christ, learning how to be apart from everyone else and alone with Him is a necessity. But discipleship also places a high premium on community and fellowship, on camaraderie and co-working. To know only how to be apart with Jesus but not a part of a holy partnership of believers leaves more than a deficit of human company…it also subtracts from our knowledge of Christ. Similarly, we are vastly less equipped in our effectiveness if we’re perpetual spiritual shut-ins. Isolation is not His way….One common cause of loneliness is the natural human tendency to limit our search for comrades to people who look or seem very much like us. We will miss what would have surely been some of our favorite people on earth if we don’t look beyond our mirror image in age, marital status, background, and personality.”
So we need to be working on our priority relationship with Jesus. Time with him in prayer and time growing ourselves in HIS ways is so important. From that foundation, then, we take those things we are learning, and we work them out with each other in our church family. So let’s be somber-minded and self-controlled as we focus on making his ways our priority.
Engaging Scripture 