Christ Church

The Shape of Trinitarian Community

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Introduction

The Trinity is the source and archetype of true Christian community: “truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 Jn. 1:3). We have been made alive together, and the resulting community is a glorious part of the riches of His grace (Eph. 2:5-6). But we want our fellowship to be shaped by the Bible and not whatever we (or our culture) assumes it to be.

The Text

But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.10 And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more;11 And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;12 That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing (1 Thess. 4:9-12).

A Summary of the Text

Paul says that the Thessalonians have “brotherly love” down really well because they were taught by God Himself (1 Thess. 4:9). Apparently, Thessalonica had become something of a center of Christian community, as they had become examples in Macedonia, Achaia, and “in every place” (1 Thess. 1:6-8). They had also been granted the ability to share that brotherly love with many outside their immediate community, “toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia” (1 Thess. 4:10). Paul urges them to increase more and more while pursuing quiet lives, minding their own business, and working with their own hands, just as the apostles had commanded them (1 Thess. 4:11). He says that they need to remember this for the sake of their witness to those who are outside the Church and so no one will be in need (1 Thess. 4:12).

Quiet Lives

For many of you with vans full of kids, you wonder what Paul could have possibly meant by a “quiet” life, but I don’t think Paul is talking about word count or decibel levels so much as he is talking about joy count and peace levels (cf. Ps. 131:2). The same word is used by Peter to exhort Christian wives to cultivate a “gentle and quiet spirit” (1 Pet. 3:4). In the context of marriage, fellowship grows as each spouse draws closer to Christ. The point here is that the goal of all Christian community is winning others closer to Christ not to ourselves or our own agendas. This is Christian love. If someone else comes closer to Christ they will have necessarily come closer to others who are also in Christ, but that is a secondary blessing and not the primary goal. So a quiet spirit and a quiet life are characterized by a recognition of the presence and agenda of God and restingin Him and His plans for our community life. The verb form of the same word (quiet) is used to describe keeping Sabbath in one place (Lk. 23:56). A quiet life is a life driven by Christian Sabbath, which is why we rest on first day of the week. The finished work of Christ grounds all of our labors: we work because God has already accepted our works (Eccl. 9:7), and so we work for Christ, not as man-pleasers (Col. 3:23-24). A quiet life insists that true community is only in and through Christ. A quiet life leaves space and time for Christ to be the center.

Elsewhere, Paul instructs Timothy that the churches should pray for civil magistrates, “that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life” (1 Tim. 2:2-4). And notice that Paul once again connects this to all men being saved and coming to a knowledge of the truth. “Better is a dry morsel with quietness, than a house full of feasting with strife” (Prov. 17:1). A fair bit of striving is rooted in an idolatry of community, demanding of people or a graven-ideal what they were never designed by God to give. “Better a handful with quietness than both hands full, together with toil and grasping for the wind” (Eccl. 4:6). We want our community to be marked by a quiet and confident exuberance in Christ, not a toiling and grasping after the wind of human intimacy (1 Cor. 13:12).

Mind Your Own Business

For some reason, this particular exhortation doesn’t make it into most of the Christian community books, but it really should be in one of the early chapters: mind your own business. This doesn’t sound very hospitable, friendly, or evangelistic. But Paul explicitly says that we must mind our own business in order that we may walk in an orderly, decent way towards those who don’t know Jesus (1 Thess. 4:11). Proverbs says something similar: “Seldom set foot in your neighbor’s house, lest he become weary of you and hate you” (Prov. 25:17, cf. Prov. 27:14). “Also do not take to heart everything people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. For many times, also, your own heart has known that even you have cursed others” (Eccl. 7:21-22, cf. Prov. 19:11). Minding your own business is not a charge to be rude or self-centered or thoughtless, but it is a charge to focus on the things God has given you to do and not add your own gas to your neighbor’s grease fire (Prov. 26:17). Also, be aware that what sometimes passes for “community” is actually a form of laziness. It’s sometimes easier to be worried about other people’s problems than facing your own, easier to reach out to people you don’t know, and meanwhile God has put people in your own home for you to love, feed, serve, help, and bless: “if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Tim. 5:8). Hospitality and friendship should be an overflow of the fellowship you have in Christ. Be diligent in loving your people so that there is no lack in your home or anywhere else (1 Thess. 4:12). And none of this justifies being a bad neighbor or shutting your heart to a brother in need when you have the means to help (1 Jn. 3:17).

Work With Your Own Hands

Reading between the lines, the Thessalonians were so good at “brotherly love,” they attracted freeloaders and busybodies. Paul reminds the Thessalonians earlier in this letter of his example of labor and toil: “laboring night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you” (1 Thess. 2:9). By the time Paul wrote his second letter to the Thessalonians, he needed to be even more explicit: “For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: if anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies” (2 Thess. 3:10). Paul says Christians should not keep company with people like that (2 Thess. 3:14). Likewise, Paul warns Timothy that young widows left to themselves, often learn to be idle, going about house to house, becoming gossips and busybodies (1 Tim. 5:13) – and no doubt some did so in the name of “building Christian community.” Didn’t the early Christians in Acts have all things in common, breaking bread from house to house (Acts 2:46)? Yes, they did, but that was a temporary stopgap addressing the unexpected Pentecost vacation extensions for many out of town guests and many residents were also preparing to leave Jerusalem, and the apostles really had their hands full with the attendant difficulties and Facebook didn’t even exist yet. But the standing gospel command is clear: “Now those who are [busybodies] we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread” (2 Thess. 3:12, cf. Eph. 4:28).

Conclusion

Jesus is the bread of life for the life of the world, and you are not, and neither is any other person in this world. Christ ministers His life to the world as “every part does its share” (Eph. 4:16). This means fixing your eyes on Jesus, the source of all Christian community and resting in Him, eating your bread with joy and drinking your wine with a merry heart because God has already accepted your works. This means minding the business God has assigned to you: building your house, loving your wife, serving your husband, encouraging and training your kids, being a blessing to your roommates, practicing hospitality, and looking for ways to serve and encourage others to do the same. This is brotherly love, and this is the shape of Christian community.

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A Sermon for the Summer

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Introduction

As the school year comes in for a landing, and we launch into another summer, it’s worth giving thought to what you might need to be on the lookout for. Summer is worth preparing for.

The Text

It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove.Then a voice came from heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness. And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him (Mk. 1:9-13).

Summary of the Text

Here at the beginning of His ministry, Jesus was baptized, filled with the Spirit, and received a benediction from His Father. The same Spirit that anointed Him and sealed the Father’s blessing to Him immediately drove Him into the wilderness, where He faced temptations from Satan, as well as, perhaps various challenges with wild beasts. And when He was finished, the angels ministered to Him. The baptism of Jesus was His preparation for the temptation, but this whole period was His preparation for His entire life and ministry, and so we may take a few lessons from it on the theme of preparing.

Preparing for What’s Next

One of the principles of parenting is preparing your children for what they will face next. When your children are very young, you need to practice saying ‘thank you’ and sitting still for church before you face those situations. First you teach, then you require. Knowing your children well means talking to them about what their temptations are likely to be when they arrive at the next thing. So, what are the temptations likely to be this summer, for you and for your children? What temptations will you face on family vacation? What are the temptations of more free-time? What will you face at a family reunion, on a baseball team, at summer camp, at a summer job, at college next Fall, or with the kids home all day long with you? This is one of the ways we love one another: by thinking about and preparing for what is coming next. In Deuteronomy, God prepared His people for the temptations of the Promised Land: “When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you. Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments (Deut. 8:10-11, cf. Dt. 6:12). In our text, we also see how God the Father prepares His Son for a great trial: by blessing Him and speaking to Him and about Him with great love and kindness (Mk. 1:11). There’s an important place for the specific warnings and instructions, but here we see that one of the most important preparations is the preparation of love and kindness: “You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” This word of the Father becomes the central point of the temptation: “If you are really the Son of God…” Clinging to this word of the Father allowed Jesus to cling to the entirety of God’s word. And we should not miss the fact that this initial trial was also itself preparation for the much greater trial to come (Mt. 26:63, 27:40, 43).

Practicing Kindness

“Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Eph. 4:31-32). Bickering, arguing, unkind teasing, biting sarcasm can creep into homes sometimes imperceptibly. And frequently this means that parents are themselves guilty. Many times adults have enough self-awareness to keep their unkindness tethered to a wobbly pole we might call “good manners.” This doesn’t mean you aren’t being unkind, you’ve just gotten good at being unkind in and around and beside “good manners.” But kids are frequently not quite as socially adept, and therefore, their unkindness is more exposed and raw. When your kids bicker regularly, you should think at least two things: first, they probably got it from you, and second, you may be doing it without knowing it. So do some checking: How do you talk about your children to your spouse or friends? How do you talk about them, even when they aren’t right there listening to you? How do you talk to or about your spouse? How does the Father speak to and about His Son? And you might object that the Father had a perfectSon, but the Bible is clear that we are called to imitate our perfectFather anyway: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is heaven is perfect” (Mt. 5:48). There is a time to ask for counsel about a difficulty, but even that request should be made in imitation of the Father, full of kindness and delight. You prepare well for anything when you practice kindness.

A Grab Bag of Other Temptations

Summertime can be an opportunity for the devil to tempt you sexually. This may be related to people thinking that it’s OK not to wear most of their clothes if they’re within 100 yards of a body of water, but if you know it’s coming, prepare yourself now. And this goes for those who may be tempted to undress that way because, well, everyone else is doing it. The Bible is clear that lust begins in the heart, and is adultery in the heart, and this goes for those who are tempted to look and for those who are tempted to try to get the looks (Mt. 5:27-30). But this warning can also apply to courtships, engagements, unwise friendships, Netflix, and cell phones. And remember that Jesus said to cut off the hands and eyes that cause us to sin, which if you think about it, would be painful and awkward, and so it may mean ditching a friendship, finding a different job, or getting a dumb phone. Related to lust is the sin of envy. Prepare your hearts not to envy the summer break of someone else. Some of you will go on vacations to the Bahamas and some of you will work 60 hours a week to barely pay your bills. Some of you will get new houses or cars or girlfriends, and some of you will still be in the beater you inherited from gramps and as single as the pope at the end of summer. Determine now that you will praise God for it all, and that you will rejoice with those who rejoice. Finally, be prepared for temptations to be lazy, either fighting sin or indulging your appetites. Drunkenness is a sin, even if nobody around you can tell that you’re drunk, and so is getting “drunk” on pot or pain killers (Eph. 5:18, 1 Thess. 5:7).

Conclusion: Crush Your Summer

But the point of all of this is not merely to stay out of trouble. The point is actually that you put some thought into how you will use your summer to maximize the glory you can bring to God. As John Piper might put it, don’t waste your summer. You not only want to plan to avoid sin; you also want to plan to succeed, plan to accomplish, plan to draw closer to God, closer to your people, and grow in holiness. When September comes around, you want to look back and see progress in the fruit of the Spirit. And one of the best ways you can ensure that you grow is to make sure you plan to eat. Remember, man doesn’t live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So plan to binge on the Bible this summer. Don’t go light on Scripture. Be extreme in the Word. Guzzle it. Feast on it. Not because you haveto but because you getto. Because His Word is good. Because when we come hungry His Word is always ultimately kindness and blessing.

 

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Sharing Your Gospel

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Introduction

In this famous section of Proverbs, the father exhorts his son, “forget not mylaw; but let thine heart keep mycommandments” (Prov. 3:1), with the promise of length of days, long life, and peace (Prov. 3:2). How can a human father, a fallen, fallible father say such a thing? We see something perhaps equally puzzling in Paul’s repeated use of the phrase “mygospel” (Rom. 2:16, 16:25, 2 Tim. 2:8). Couldn’t this be confusing? Doesn’t this seem a little arrogant?

The Text

“My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments:2 For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee.3 Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:4 So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man.5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.7 Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil.8 It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.9 Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase:10 So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.11 My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of his correction:12 For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth” (Proverbs 3:1-12).

Heart, Neck, Eyes, Barns, and Discipline

The exhortations in our text are to rather abstract virtues (law, mercy, truth, trust, fear, honor), but they are saddled to intensely concrete bodilyitems: days, heart, neck, eyes, bones, barns, and wine (Prov. 3:2-10). This sets up the equation between virtue and practical actions and decisions. Virtue is embodied. We also see that there are five admonitions, and each exhortation is followed by a concrete promise of blessing: do not forget=length of days (Prov. 3:1-2), keep mercy and truth=finding favor (3:3-4), trust in the Lord=straight paths (3:5-6), fear the Lord=good health (3:7-8), honor the Lord=full barn (3:9-10). So without reducing virtue to a mechanical lever, it is still true to say that virtue is embodied and the blessing that follows virtue is also embodied, either now or in the resurrection (Mk. 10:30). And the father reappears at the end of our text, claiming that his discipline is the embodiment of the Lord’s loving discipline (Prov. 3:11-12).

My Law & Commands

While the idea that virtue is embodied is easier to understand, the question is how the father can claim that his discipline is the Lord’s discipline, that his son should keep his law. Shouldn’t the father make it clearer that it isn’t really his law, rather it’s the Lord’s, and his discipline is only as good as it agrees with God’s discipline? Related is also the fact that the father is promising “long life and peace,” which the father may be able to influence but cannot infallibly deliver. Is it really wise for Solomon (or any father) to speak this way? Surely part of the answer is found in the words of Moses: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart… and these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children…You shall bind them as a sign on your hand…” (Dt. 6:5-9) A faithful father was commanded by God to embrace the law of God and bind it to himself and so teach it diligently to his children. A faithful father believes God’s promise for long life and peace and prosperity for fidelity to His law, and in so far as the father is representing God’s law, the father may relay this as his own possession and sure promise to his children.

Mercy & Truth

But the second admonition suggests that there is even more going on: “Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart” (Prov. 3:3). If the first exhortation reminds us of God’s law, this combination seems to be a short hand for the essentials of covenant blessing. In Genesis 24:27, the servant of Abraham blessed God for not forsaking his “mercy and truth” to Abraham by leading him to Rebecca’s family. “All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, to such as keep His covenant and His testimonies” (Ps. 25:10, cf. 2 Sam. 15:20, Ps. 57:3, 10, 85:10, 89:14, 100:5). But in Prov. 16:6, Solomon says that by “mercy and truth” atonement is provided for sin. The word atonement reminds us of the Most Holy Place where the Ark of the Covenant was. The golden lid was called the “mercy seat” and the Ten Commandments were inside it (Ex. 25:21, Heb. 9:3-4). All of this pointed to Jesus and specifically His cross, where the mercy and truth of God have come together even more clearly and emphatically: Jesus is both God’s truth about our sin and His merciful sacrifice for it (Jn. 1:14-17). He is our ark, our mercy seat, our “throne of grace” in a time of need (Heb. 4:16, 10:19ff). And Jesus is the embodiment of mercy and truth. When the father says bind mercy and truth around your neck and write them on the tablet of your heart, he is actually saying bind Jesus around your neck and write Jesus on the tablet of your heart.

Embodied Discipleship

But it still seems somewhat puzzling: why does the father point to himself in the first instance and not immediately away to God? Part of the answer is that the father does point to the Lord (3:5, 3:7, 3:9) – so every father should do the same. But the father still feels very comfortable calling the law “my law” and likening his instruction/discipline with the correction/chastening of the Lord (3:1-2, 11-12). The answer is found in God’s determination that discipleship be intensely personal and therefore embodied. Discipleship is teaching virtues such as truth and mercy and obedience and honor, but those virtues must be embodied and imitated. Christian discipleship does look to the Lord, but Jesus sent mento disciple the nations. Therefore, discipleship also simultaneously includes immediate human relationships, like father-son. Jesus embodies this in the first instance as the perfect Son of the perfect Father. The scribes and Pharisees were scandalized by His insistence that He is the embodiment of the Father (Jn. 10:29-30), but we often merely chalk this up to the deity of Christ: Jesus is God, so He can say things like that (which is true).

But Jesus also indicates that what He came to do, as an ambassador of His Father, He intends to pass on to His disciples. He calls the disciples away from their earthly fathers and their fishing boats and nets and says He will likewise make them fishers of men, or we might say fathers of men (Lk. 5:10). And we see this in Paul’s own ministry: “I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I warn you. For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. Therefore I urge you, imitate me. For this reason I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church” (1 Cor. 4:14-17, cf. Phil. 2:22, 1 Thess. 2:11). As Jesus called the first disciples to “follow me,” Paul imitates and says, “follow me,” and presumably he taught Timothy to say the same thing. This is why Paul frequently refers to the gospel as “my gospel” or “our gospel” (Rom. 2:16, 16:25, 2 Cor. 4:3, 1 Thess. 1:5, 2 Thess. 2:14, 2 Tim. 2:8).

Conclusion

Because we have been given the Spirit of the Father and the Son, we have access to the Father and therefore we have the boldness to represent Him to others. In the gift of salvation, the living and eternal God has taken up residence in you. His law has become your law. His mercy and truth are bound around your neck, written on the tablet of your heart. His gospel is now your gospel. If we understand this, we must learn to say with Jesus: Come, follow me, keep my law and commandments. This is my gospel: Jesus Christ was crucified for sinners and raised from the dead for our justification. My son, my daughter, my friend, do not forget my law. This is all a gift, all of grace, but grace gives this authority. “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me” (1 Cor. 15:10).

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Despising the Shame

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Introduction

In a recent article entitled, Shame Storm, a writer chronicles how true and false accusations of wrong doing combined with the internet and social media have mixed together to create storms of shame: One person commented on a situation, “I think nobody has quite figured out what should happen in cases like his, where you have been legally acquitted but you are still judged as undesirable in public opinion, and how far that should go, how long that should last.” The author continues: “No one has yet figured out what rules should govern the new frontiers of public shaming that the Internet has opened… Shame is now both global and permanent, to a degree unprecedented in human history. No more moving to the next town to escape your bad name. However far you go and however long you wait, your disgrace is only ever a Google search away.”

We live in a world that has become shameful– literally, we have done shameful things, we feel shame, we are afraid of being exposed, and we are frequently driven by avoidance of shame. But the Bible speaks to this situation, and the gospel is good news and good courage for this.

The Texts

Shame first enters the world in the Garden of Eden in the sin of our first parents: “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons… And [Adam] said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself” (Gen. 3:7, 10). Shame is the feeling or fact of exposure – the visceral, frequently physical sense of disgrace, defilement, dishonor, humiliation, or embarrassment. If guilt is the objective fact of wrong doing, shame is the subjective feeling and the public exposure of that fact. When Aaron led Israel to worship the golden calf, they did so naked to their great shame (Ex. 32:25). Shame is something that covers people like a garment or covers their face (Job 8:22, Ps. 35:26, 44:15, 69:7, 83:16). It’s a spoiled reputation, a despised status, blot, filth, a mark of folly that is seemingly impossible to remove. Think of Joseph not wanting to put Mary to open shame, supposing she had sinned to become pregnant with Jesus (Mt. 1:19). Shame is the private and public humiliation of being wrong, the removal of respect and glory (1 Cor. 11:6). And yet our texts say that we are to look unto Jesus, who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Heb. 12:2). He endured such contradictions against Himself, that we are to remain resolute and confident (Heb. 12:3). We are to establish our hearts with grace, going to Jesus outside the gate, bearing His reproach (Heb. 13:9, 12-13).

The Grace of Shame

In the first instance, if we are to rightly despise the shame, we must welcome a certain sort of shame. How does Paul say that we are to establish our hearts with grace? Not by diverse and strange doctrines and not by eating meat (Heb. 13:9). What does he mean? He means that you cannot establish your hearts by doing respectable religious things – he’s talking specifically about priests and Jews trying to trick grace out of the sacrificial altar in Jerusalem after Jesus has come. Of course, at one time that altar did point to Jesus, our sacrifice for sin, but those sacrifices could never actually take away sin, and now that Jesus has come, turning back to the Old Covenant was worse than useless.

But the temptation here varies through the ages: it’s the temptation to respectability, various and strange and new doctrines and fads. The Jews had a nice building, formal sacrificial liturgies, and an inner circle inside the camp, inside the gate. The carcasses of the sacrificial animals were burned outside the camp (Heb. 13:11), and so that is where they also crucified Jesus, outside the gate (Heb. 13:12). And that is where God’s grace is found, outside the gate, where Jesus was nailed to a tree, hung up naked for all to see, mocked and jeered, until our sins were paid for, until God’s justice was completely finished. In the beginning, God killed animals and covered Adam and Eve’s shame, and in the fullness of time, God laid the wrath of His justice on His own Son and covered all of our shame forever. It is the grace of shame to cause us to know our sin, to know our nakedness, to drive us to the cross of Jesus, despising the shame of owning our sin.

I remember years ago when I was teaching, I called a parent to report something about their student. In the course of the conversation, I was not completely truthful, and when I hung up the phone, I knew immediately that I had lied and needed to put it right. I called back a second time, and proceeded to apologize for a good half of my lie. Upon hanging up a second time, I was thoroughly ashamed and embarrassed as I proceeded to call the parent for a third to finally tell the entire truth – and I’ve never done that again! Shame drives us to deal with our sin, but shame also teaches us to hate sin, to stay far away from sin. This is the graceof shame.

True and False Shame

But in a fallen world, rebellious sinners who refuse to repent of their sin must do something with their shame, and so they embrace it. They call evil good and good evil, and they glory in their shame (Is. 5:20, Phil. 3:19). They rejoice in their shame; they are shameless and proud of their shame. “Who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness; who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked” (Prov. 2:13-14). They are “raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever” (Jude 1:13). “For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you” (1 Pet. 4:3-4).

The logical end game of refusing the message of true shame for sin is a complete reversal or inversion of glory and shame, calling good evil and evil good, to the point that you are evil for not joining in with them in their evil, for not rejoicing with them in evil. And the goal is to make you ashamed. The goal is to make you feel bad about confronting their sin, for not endorsing it. And so this is also what it means to “bear His reproach” outside the camp (Heb. 13:13). They falsely accused Jesus. They said He was a blasphemer and rabble-rouser and traitor. They condemned Him, crucified Him, speaking evil of Him. They sought to shame Him, and therefore they will seek to shame all who would follow Him (Jn. 15:18-19, 1 Jn. 3:13). This is what Peter and John faced when they were beaten and rebuked: “they departed from the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ” (Acts 5:41-42).

Conclusions

The first application is the straightforward invitation to have your shame covered by Jesus. And you must be entirely covered. When Jesus came to wash the feet of Peter, Peter was apparently embarrassed, ashamed to have the Lord wash his feet, but Jesus said to him: “If I do not wash you, you have no part with me” (Jn. 13:8). And Peter immediately got the point and asked for the full bath. The same is true for our shame. Unless Jesus covers you, you have no part with Him. Jesus has white robes for everyone who comes to Him, but you must come (Rev. 3:18). This invitation is for all sinners and all sin, but it is particularly for the sins and filth that you think cannot be covered: the shame of sexual sin, the shame of abortion, the shame of divorce, the shame of wayward children, the shame of being fired from your job. He even covers the shame of things that are not necessarily our fault — not being married, not having children, not accomplishing the great things you said/thought you would. Take it to Jesus, He’s waiting outside the camp.

The second application is that whatever Jesus has covered with His blood and righteousness is utterly blameless, and you must not give a wit for the accusations of the Devil or the shame-weaponizing of the world (Col. 2:14-15, Heb. 2:14-15). When Peter and John rejoiced to suffer shame for the name of Jesus, they did not cease to preach and teach Jesus Christ. So too, when you are privileged to suffer shame for the name of Jesus, do not cease to walk with Jesus. Do not slow down. Do not hesitate. If you have been forgiven, then learn to teach transgressors the ways of God, so that sinners will be converted (Ps. 51:13). “And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed. And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed” (Joel 2:26-27).

Do not grow weary, lay aside every weight, and fix your eyes on Jesus, who despised the shame for you.

Grace Agenda 2019

April 5-6th | Moscow, ID

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Loving the Stranger

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Hebrews 13:1-6

Let brotherly love continue. 2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels. 3 Remember the prisoners as if chained with them—those who are mistreated—since you yourselves are in the body also.4 Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear, What can man do to me?”

Introduction

Hospitality is one of the basic Christian duties. It is a central duty because it embodies the gospel of Jesus. At the same time, because it ought to embody the gospel, it is worth thinking through carefully so that we are not thoughtlessly embodying a false or distorted gospel.

The Texts

Paul says that Christians are to pursue or even “persecute” with hospitality – literally the “love of strangers” (Rom. 12:13). Peter says that we are to love one another in the church, and be “hospitable” to one another without grumbling (1 Pet. 4:8). In Hebrews, it says not to neglect hospitality (Heb. 13:2). In the parable of the sheep and the goats, Jesus commends the sheep who took in the stranger, for doing it unto the least of these my brethren was doing it unto Him (Mt. 25:35). Elders and pastors are to set the example for Christians by being hospitable (1 Tim. 3:2, Tit. 1:8). These commands are rooted in the Old Testament law: “You shall neither mistreat a stranger nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Ex. 22:21). “And if a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Lev. 19:33-34). “He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing. Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Dt. 10:18-19).

Boaz & the Moabites

Perhaps one of the greatest biblical stories of hospitality is found in the story of Ruth, where Boaz married Ruth, the Moabitess, at great sacrifice to himself for the good and blessing and protection of a “stranger” in the land, a foreign widow. One of the lesser known genealogical facts of the Bible, that really should get more airtime, is the fact that Rahab the Harlot was the mother of Boaz (Mt. 1:5, Ruth 4:20-21). Boaz knew how to love a stranger sacrificially because his own mother had been the recipient of such sacrificial love. But there is actually quite a bit more to the story. Moab was one of the sons of the incestuous unions of the daughters of Lot (Gen. 19:35-38). The sexual sin continued in the family: Even though Balaam failed to curse Israel when he was hired by the king of Moab to do so, the women of Moab successfully seduced many of the men of Israel (Num. 25:1), bringing God’s curse in the form of a severe plague that was only averted by the well-aimed javelin of Phinehas (Num. 25:7-8). Likewise, it was during the days of the judges that Eglon king of Moab oppressed Israel and was assassinated by Ehud (Judg. 3). So, hold all of this together: it was within living memory that many Israelite men had gone to the Moabite red light district, and it was within living memory that Israel had been oppressed by the Moabites. And it was in those days, during the judging of the judges, that a destitute Moabitewoman shows up in Bethlehem. There would have been plenty of talking going on in town – and a certain bit of it was wise and godly talking.

Strangers & Strange Women

One of the famous warnings of Solomon in the book of Proverbs regards the “strange woman.” “To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words, which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God” (Prov. 2:16-17). “For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: but her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword” (Prov. 5:3-4). Solomon knew well from personal experience the dangers he warned of: “But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites, of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love… And his wives turned away his heart” (1 Kgs. 11:1-3, cf. Dt. 7:1-4). This same principle is repeated in the New Testament: “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness?… And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord” (2 Cor. 6:14-18). Likewise, “ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (Js. 4:4). So on the one hand, God urges His people to love strangers, to welcome them into the covenant of God, to feed and clothe them. But on the other hand, God repeatedly warns about being assimilated to their ways. Jesus was/is a friend of sinners and prostitutes, precisely because He refuses to be drawn into their sin and insists on them leaving their sin behind. This is Christian hospitality; this is the gospel embodied in love for strangers.

Conclusions

These principles have a number of applications in a number of different directions: entertainment, friendship, learning from pagans, and evangelism. In the early church one of the images the church fathers used to describe how Christians should interact with pagan culture was the “war bride” law (Dt. 21:10-13). God prohibited men acting on impulse in the middle war (as is common in pagan warfare) and required that if a man wanted to marry a captive woman, she was to shave her head, trim her nails, put off the clothing of her captivity and be allowed to mourn for a full month before he could marry her. The church fathers said this was a good analogy for sorting through pagan cultures. The “strange woman” needs to be naturalized or assimilated into Israel, and this cannot be done impulsively or thoughtlessly, and she must leave behind her pagan gods and cleave to the God of Israel, like Rahab did, like Ruth did.

A caution and an encouragement: Remember that it is a fundamental Christian responsibility to provide for those of your own household first (1 Tim. 5:8). Many Christians in the name of mercy ministry/hospitality sacrifice marriages and children on the altar to this strange god. But the first rule of Christian hospitality is to create no new orphans or widows or strangers. In other words, the first strangers you are called to feed and clothe and love are the ones living in your own house. The encouragement is that as you do this well, and your family is spiritually thriving, you will be practiced in hospitality and ready to give to those in need.

The ground of all of this is the gospel: “That He might reconcile us to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity…Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (Eph. 2:19).

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