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Spiritual Disciplines II: Eat

Joe Harby on March 10, 2013

Introduction

So there are three imperatives we are considering as we look at the spiritual disciplines. They are breathe, eat, and work. We have already seen the need for the gift of breath, and we will now look at the charge to eat.

The Text

“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:16-17).

Summary of the Text

As we have considered, Adam was shaped from the dust of the ground. Eve was therefore a granddaughter of the soil, taken from the side of Adam, just as Adam had been taken from the side of the earth. After he had been shaped, God breathed into him the breath of life. Once he had become a living soul, it became apparent that this living soul would need ongoing sustenance. Here in our passage, the Lord God gave him all the food in the garden, with one exception. He was not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but every other tree was free and available to him. This included, incidentally, the tree of life (Gen. 2:9). That tree was only shut off to him after the Fall, most probably as an act of mercy. But the simple need for food in an ongoing way is plainly a design feature, unrelated to sin.

God Gives the Increase

The gift of physical life is sustained by the gift of physical food. Man was created an eating creature. So in the same way, spiritual life is sustained by spiritual food. Life seeks out food, and life incorporates food. But how food is able to do what it does is a grand mystery. Although this passage is about a plant being nourished and growing as a result, the principle is the same for all living things. “So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase” (1 Cor. 3:7). You don’t eat a sandwich and then set aside the next half hour for issuing commands down to your digestive system to make sure everything goes where it needs to. That part of it is built in. You just put food in, and life does something with it. How? God gives the increase.

The Menu

So just as a living body needs to import nutrition, so also does the soul. We have already considered the reality of it. But what are we supposed to eat to nourish our spiritual lives? In what ways are we instructed to feed?

Another way of asking this is to wonder what menu God has prepared for us. Here are some of the key items that feed us.

The Word of God feeds us. Man does not live by bread alone (Matt.4:4), but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. We are called to eat teaching, eat doctrine—and not sporadically either (Heb. 5:14; 1 Pet. 2:2).
The sacraments feed us. They are explicitly described for us as spiritual food (1 Cor. 10:1-4; 16). We are instructed to take care that we eat in a particular way, but when we do, we are nourished by Christ Himself.
Music feeds us. We are to teach and admonish one another by psalms and hymns and spiritual songs (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16). This is clearly a combination because the words are the Word of God also, but God wants us to feed on the Word while singing it.
Prayer feeds us. We too often think of prayer as outlay instead of intake. But Jesus said that prayer understood properly strengthens rather than drains (Mark 9:29).
Doing the will of God feeds us. The Lord told His disciples that He had nourishment that they didn’t know about (John 4:31-34). He told them this after He had ministered to the woman at the well.
And fellowship feeds us. We see this as one of the things the new believers on Pentecost naturally sought out (Acts 2:42).

Balanced Diet

We have made the point that healthy life doesn’t need “hungry lessons.” At the same time, if you established all your physical eating habits as a small child, you might now be subsisting on a diet revolving around deep-fried Oreos. This is the way of the libertine. But there is also the legalist, the one who wants to be put right or kept right with God by means of some healthy sounding thing that you can sprinkle on your salad, like pine bark shavings.

Use the dining table to illustrate the point about your Bible reading, or any other form of spiritual grazing. Why do you eat? For most people, you should eat for two basic reasons—first, because you are hungry, and second, because its dinner time. Why do you need other reasons? And if other reasons are front and center, you are probably over-thinking it.

Christ in All of It

So we feed on the Word of God. Christ is the Word (John 1:1). We are nourished by the sacraments—but the Old Testament saints are said to have been nourished by Christ. They drank Christ; they ate Christ, the bread from Heaven (1 Cor. 10:1-4). We are baptized into the death of Christ (Rom. 6:3), and we are made partakers of Christ in the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 10:16). We sing Christ (Col. 3:16). Christ prays for us (Rom. 8:34), and whenever we pray, we are praying in Christ. Because we know it is true that of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, we offer our bodies a living sacrifice, which proves and establishes the will of God (Rom. 12:1-2). This nourishes us. The fellowship we enjoy with one another is fellowship that is grounded in walking in the light as He is in the light (1 John 1:7). In short, it is Jesus everywhere.

Spiritual Disciplines I: Breathe

Joe Harby on March 3, 2013

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Introduction

We are going to be spending this week and the next two on the subject of the spiritual disciplines. I am putting them together as three imperatives—breathe, eat, work. When God put Adam into this world, He gave him the breath of life, He gave him food to eat, and He gave him work to do. This is the pattern we should receive from Him as we seek to order our lives rightly.

The Text

“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7).

Summary of the Text

Although we were created and fashioned in the image of God, it remains a fact that we are utterly dependent creatures. The Lord God shaped and fashioned man out of the dust of the ground. When He was done “sculpting,” He had a very fine statue, but still lifeless. God then breathed the breath of life into His work. At that moment Adam became a living soul. And ever since that first breath, if God ever takes His breath away, all creatures, man and animal alike, return necessarily to the dust of the ground (Ps. 104:29-30).

The Meaning of Death

Our physical life is a spiritual reality, but we all recognize that there is more to our spiritual lives than just physical breathing. But we know that non-Christians have souls, for example. What do we have that they do not?

In the Bible, death refers to separation more than it refers to simple cessation. In the Garden, God told Adam that the day they ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they would die (Gen. 2:17). But what happened when they did? They were exiled from the garden, separated from the communion with God that they had enjoyed before (Gen. 3:24). And when Adam died physically, 70 years shy of a millennium later, what happened was that his soul and his body were then separated (Gen. 5:5). The wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23), which means that because we are sinners, we are separated from God, estranged from Him (Col. 1:21).

This is why is says in Ephesians that when we were non-Christians we were dead in our trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1), in which trespasses we used to walk (Eph. 2:2). That is the biblical picture—dead but walking around. So the death cannot refer to a condition of being like stone, or like nothing. It refers to separation.

And when we are quickened in regeneration, we are made alive spiritually. Now the soul and spirit can be very hard to distinguish (Heb. 4:12), but there is a difference. Someone who is truly regenerate is quickened in the inner man (2 Cor. 4:16). “And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses” (Col. 2:13).

The Word for Spirit

The word for spirit in Greek is pneuma. Interestingly, that is also the word for wind, and it is also the word for breath.

“The wind [pneuma] bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit [pneuma]” (John 3:8).

The Lord’s whole point here is designed to make us aware of how utterly sovereign the Holy Spirit is. We cannot whistle Him up. On a windy day, you cannot capture some in a paper bag to take home and show everybody. We cannot manufacture aerosol cans that will spray someone with the breath of life. This is outside of our control.

Gotta Be Alive

The spiritual disciplines all work within an assumed context of life.

But an entire religious industry has sprung up trying to make food attractive to corpses, and trying to get dead bodies to contribute more than they do.

One of the most remarkable things about life is that it incorporates, naturally and readily, the things around it that are conducive to its well-being.

But think for a moment about this. “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby” (1 Pet. 2:2). Healthy babies are born hungry—you don’t have to teach them to be hungry. Their hunger is a sign of life. They have been given the breath of life. “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42, ESV). There it is again—born hungry.

Impressive Activity, But . . .

People who are separated from God, who are not in fellowship with Him, can do an impressive number of things that have a religious nature. They can give their bodies to be burned, and they can help the poor (1 Cor. 13:3). They can speak with the tongues of men and angels (1 Cor. 13:1). But, despite all of this activity, the whole enterprise amounts to a bunch of nothing.

In fact, climbing the highest mountain and swimming the deepest sea is what the unregenerate (but religious) man wants to do. It is an impulse that makes good sense to him, and doing anything else doesn’t make sense to him. When Naaman came to Elisha to be healed, the simplicity of the assigned task infuriated him. But his servants wisely observed that if he had been told to do some great thing, he would have done it (2 Kings 5:13). And why? Because great deeds flatter us. Receiving grace as beggar supplicants does not flatter us.

Where It Begins

There are no spiritual disciplines for creating life. Only the gospel creates life. Once given, life incorporates nutrients. Life seeks out nutrients. Life bends its entire nature toward that end.

So the first spiritual discipline is checking for a pulse. The first spiritual discipline is making sure you are alive. Breathe.

And to be alive, the God of Heaven must breathe His Holy Spirit into you.

Wisdom from Above V

Joe Harby on February 17, 2013

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Introduction

The fact that this prophetic warning is located just on the threshold of God’s judgment of Israel in 70 A.D. does not prevent it from providing us with a number of useful warnings. They were told to look back at similar times of affliction in the Old Testament, and so we have two sets of such historical warnings. Locating this in the first century, therefore, does not make this irrelevant to us, but rather doubly relevant.

The Text

“Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten . . .” (Jas. 5:1-20).

Summary of the Text

The rich are instructed to weep for the coming miseries (v. 1). The wealth they have, and the luxuries they possess, are all coming apart (v. 2). Their gold and silver is corroded, and will both testify against them and devour them (v. 3). They have made piles of treasure for the last days (v. 3). The next judgment tells us what kind of rich men we are talking about (v. 4). They can hire roomfuls of lawyers to keep the working man in bondage to the fine print. They are sensualists, fattening themselves for God’s charnel house (v. 5). They are rich men who kill just men (v. 6).

So the brothers ought to be patient in waiting for the coming of the Lord, just like a farmer waits (v. 7). They should strengthen their hearts as the coming of the Lord approaches (v. 8). Don’t break out into squabbles . . . the judge is at the door (v. 9). Christians in the first century should take a page from the Old Testament prophets (v. 10). We consider men happy who endure misery through to the end (v. 11). Count Job a happy man therefore.

Whatever you do, don’t swear by created things. Let your yes be yes (v. 12). The afflicted should pray (v. 13). The merry should sing psalms (v. 13). The sick should ask for the elders to come (v. 14). The prayer of faith will raise up the sick, and sickness is more closely related to sin issues than we might want to think (v. 15). Confess your faults and failings to one another, so that you might be healed (v. 16). In this humbled, honest context, fervent prayer avails much. Elijah was a man with problems like we have, and look how God answered his prayers (vv. 17- 18). Go after those who wander off (v. 19). Let the one you are chasing know that he is being pulled back from death, and that a multitude of sins is being covered (v. 20) . . . which is the task of love.

Injustice on the Threshold of Judgment

The Bible describes the run-up to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. in terms that should make us think of the denouement of The Odyssey. We see rich and insolent suitors devouring what is not theirs, while justice is right at the door. This chapter describes this kind of scene for us well.

The rich here are the same ones in chapter two, those who mistreat the saints (Jas. 2:6). Their wealth is not like that of Abraham or Solomon, but rather was wickedly obtained (v. 3). They rob their laborers of wages that were promised to them, keeping the wages back by fraud (v. 4). They live in wanton luxury (v. 5). They use their wealth to murder just people (v. 6). Foolish saints are tempted to flatter such men, but what is required is for us to stand against them with a prophetic courage.

For all their wisdom (the kind of wisdom that is from below), these rich people do not know they are on the precipice of disaster. They have heaped up piles of loot for the last days (v. 3). A mound of gold at your feet in Hell will just melt and run away. Those afflicted by these people are told to be patient to the coming of the Lord (v. 7). The coming of the Lord is drawing near (v. 8). The judge is standing right at the door (v. 9). From these descriptions, this had to have happened in the first century. But this does not make such warnings irrelevant to us —all of us will meet God within one lifetime . . . our own.

Sickness and Sin

We know from the teaching of Scripture that sin and suffering are not automatically connected. James mentions Job here as a patient and happy man (v. 11), and not the sinner that his three counselors thought he was. And of course, Jesus effectively countered His disciples who thought a man was born blind because of his or his parents’ sin (John 9:3).

But the fact that there is not an automatic connection does not mean there is no connection. When the elders pray, it says, healing and forgiveness are closely connected (v. 15). This is why we should be honest with each other (v. 16). Being honest means that we will not treat the whole thing as a cosmic karma machine, but neither will we shuffle off all responsibility as though there could not be a connection.

Merriment and the Psalms

The psalms are like the blues. One of the striking things about the blues is that singing them makes you feel better. Even though the subject of many blues songs is pretty grim (“nobody loves me but my mother, and she could be jiving too”), the overall effect of the blues is pretty upbeat.

The same thing is true of the psalms. Notice that James says that if someone is merry, he should “sing psalms.” He does not say that the merry one should sing Psalms 148, 149, and 150. The book of psalms is full of affliction, and yet God tells us that it provides us with our vocabulary of joy and godly mirth. Psalms of distress, psalms of war, psalms of fear, psalms of imprecation, psalms of penitence . . . into the hopper.

Confession and Accusation

Remember that the world runs on envy and accusation. Remember that God gives more grace. But what sense does it make to confess my faults to others when anything I say can and will be used against me? We are not to confess anything in an attempt manipulate God, or as we try to get Him to do our bidding. We are to confess our sins in Christ, and we are to be lifted up in Christ. Confession must not be a “work.” It must be all of grace.

Wisdom From Above III

Joe Harby on February 3, 2013

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Introduction

This passage contains the phrase that gives the title to this entire series of messages, the phrase “the wisdom from above.” But this wisdom from above is not an abstract set of rules. Never forget that our wisdom from above has a name, and His name is Jesus. He is the wisdom from above.

The Text

“My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole
body . . .” (Jas. 3:1-18).

Summary of the Text

James tells us here that not many should want to be teachers (v. 1) because teachers come under a stricter judgment. We all stumble in many ways, including in our words, and teachers do it up in front of everybody (v. 2). If a man controls his tongue, then that means he is able to control himself entirely (v. 2). A bit is a horse’s mouth is small, but can direct the whole animal (v. 3). A ship of great size, and in a great storm, is still directed by a small helm (v. 4). The tongue is small but influential in the same way (v. 5). The tongue is a fire, a cosmos of iniquity, which is set on fire by Hell, defiles the whole body, and sets the entire wheel of life on fire (v. 6). Every kind of beast has been tamed by man (v. 7), but the tongue not so much (v. 8). The tongue is schizophrenic, blessing God and cursing the image of God (v. 9). Blessing and cursing gush out of the same mouth (v. 10), which is not fitting. Does a fountain do that (v 11)? Does a fig tree bear contrary to its nature? Does a vine (v. 12)? Neither does a fountain.

The tongue is a helm. Who is the helmsman? If we want to know who the wise man is, we look for a good way of life and meekness of wisdom (v. 13). But if envy and strife is residing in your heart, then stop vaunting in your glory, and stop lying against the truth (v. 14). This wisdom (for some call it “wisdom”) does not come down from above, but is earthly, sensual, and devilish (v. 15). Where this heart is, then confusion, disorder, and every vile practice follow (v. 16). The wisdom that does come from above, and which Jesus is the perfect embodiment of, is pure, peaceable, easily entreated, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and honest (v. 17). Those who make peace are sowing peace, and the harvest is righteousness (v. 18).

Where We Actually Are

Whenever a minister announces that he is going to preach on “tongue,” the response is this: And all God’s people said uh oh. But we often hide our real problems under a veil of hyper-sensitivity to the wrong things. This passage is not at all describing a couple of church ladies chatting about who might get engaged next. Why do we always assume this is about gossip? Gossip isn’t even mentioned here. This is all about ambition, power struggles, envy, strife, in-fighting, cursing, throwing elbows, and so on. And before we say something like, “Oh, that’s a relief then,” we need to do a little spiritual inventory. James seems to think this problem is far more common than we tend to think.

Not Many Teachers

Teachers operate in a stand of trees; their calling puts them in a forest. And on top of that, teachers labor with their tongues, with words. This means that if the “unregulated fire” of their words gets loose, the result is a forest fire.

Claimants to Wisdom

James is not just comparing two kinds of people. He is comparing two kinds of people, each kind claiming to be the rightful possessor of something called “wisdom.”The question is “who is the wise man?”Who has true knowledge? The answer is that real wisdom is meek (v. 13). There is a kind of wisdom that isn’t, that wants to glory in its envy and strife, wants to lie against the truth, and still call it wisdom (v. 15). James calls it wisdom too, after a fashion, but he says that it is earthly, sensual and devilish. And like a squid spraying ink, it frequently gets away with this response because when everything gets disordered and confused enough, nobody can tell who did or said what.

Real wisdom, the kind that comes from above, is peace-seeking, gentle, full of mercy and sweet reasonableness. It is marked, not by claims to impartiality, but by impartiality. It is marked, not by claims that it is easily entreated, but by being easily entreated. Real wisdom does not conjugate the verb this way—I am firm, you are stubborn, he is pig-headed. In the final analysis, if you want to know what was planted, look at the harvest.

Wisdom from Above

Remember the perfections of Jesus, and marvel at this crowning perfection—the fact that He was not totally exasperated all the time, in every conversation He ever had. But look at how He lived. He emptied Himself, took the form of a servant, and was obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Not only did He spend His time with us, He spent His life for us.

Envy and strife do not set their face to go to Jerusalem to be crucified by the chief priests and scribes. They don’t see any future for self in that. Self-centered glory does not set a child in the midst of disciples jockeying for position and tell them that they must be like that. Self-centered glory rather tries to keep the children away. Devilish ambition does not teach us to take the lowest seat so that God may be the one who promotes us. Devilish ambition cannot help itself, and must seek its own glory.

Jesus is the wisdom of God, and lest you assume that this meekness means becoming a doormat in the face of evil, remember that this meekness from God cleansed the Temple with a whip, rebuked the Pharisees with high satire, and was enough of a firebrand that the authorities had Him crucified as a public menace.

Wisdom from Above I

Joe Harby on January 20, 2013

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Introduction

James, the Lord’s brother, wrote this remarkable letter. Some Christians have found it a little deficient in “gospel,” but this is largely the result of a deficient view of Scripture, coupled with a deficient view of the nature of the gospel. God’s gospel kindness to us is woven throughout the epistle.

The Text

“James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience . . .” (Jas. 1:1-27).

Summary of the Text

The letter from James is a general one, written to the “twelve tribes” out there (v. 1). When various trials arise, reckon it to be your joy (v. 2). The reason for this is that the trials are not senseless (v. 3). There is a point to them, which is our maturity (v. 4). If any of us lack wisdom (about what is going on in this process), we should ask God, and He will provide it for us (v. 5). In such requests, we must not waver (v. 6). Wobbly prayers in this regard don’t go far (v. 7). This is because a double-minded man is unstable in all things (v. 8), and not just in his prayer life. A low position is actually an exalted one (v. 9). This world’s riches are the inverse of that (v. 10). The rich man browns up nicely, just like the flowers in a high meadow in August (v. 11). But the man who endures trial receives the crown of life when all is said and done (v. 12).

But temptation does not come from God (v. 13). Temptation arises from within (v. 14). This process leads steadily downward to death (v. 15). Don’t make a mistake about what comes from where (v. 16). Good gifts come down from the immutable God of Heaven (v. 17). And it was His will to bring regeneration about in us (v. 18).

So then, be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger (v. 19). Man’s anger is not doing God’s work (v. 20). So set aside the attitudinal junk (v. 21), and quit saying you can’t. James just told you to. Do the Word, and don’t just listen to it (v. 22). Hearers only are absent-minded mirror-gazers (vv. 23-24). But look into the text, the perfect law of liberty, and you will truly see yourself there (v. 25). Vain religion is the religion of the unbridled tongue (v. 26). True religion rescues others from their troubles, and stands pure and apart from the world (v. 27).

Asking for Joy

Now it is the easiest thing in the world to lift v. 5 out of context, and say that if you lack wisdom about any decision whatever, all you have to do is ask, and God will supply the answer. This job or that one? This major or that one? This car or that one? But the context here is plainly saying that if anyone lacks wisdom about how to receive trials with joy, learning patience to the point where we lack nothing, then that person should ask God to supply the requisite wisdom. Don’t be dishonest or double-minded in it, and God promises to give this sort of wisdom liberally, abundantly. The crown of life awaits us on the other side of an endured trial—provided we love the Lord (v. 12).

This doesn’t mean that you cannot pray for wisdom about other decisions (of course not), but it does mean you can’t do that if you are not praying for wisdom to rejoice in your troubles. If you do that, you are inverting the promise, not expanding it. You are trying to treat God as a giant convenience store in the sky.

Trials and Temptations

In Greek, the word for trial and the word for temptation are the same word, with our distinction for them certainly present, but contextually determined. James tells us here that we are to consider trials a joy (v. 2), but also says that temptations do not come from God (v. 13). Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Matt. 4:1). A few chapters later, He teaches us to pray in the Lord’s Prayer with a request that our Father lead us not into temptation (Matt. 6:13). Who is doing what? The same situation is a trial or a temptation based on the perspective of the one testing or luring. Given the Lord’s time in the wilderness, what did the devil want and what did the Spirit want?

The Transience of Wealth

A man with the right sort of troubles is a man who is matriculating in God’s character course. Rejoice that you have been accepted into the program, and rejoice in the challenging work that comes with it. The rich man is deceived—if he accepts the present moment as a permanent moment, which is what the temptation usually is. A rich man should rejoice in the transience of his wealth, so that he might have true wealth. The poor man rejoices in the true wealth that is ahead of him, and he knows what God’s intention for him is.

The Genesis of Sin

Sin is not dropped on us from Heaven. Let no one say when he is tempted that God is seeking to lure him into sin. Where does sin come from then? Each man’s lust (desire) leads to sin, and sin leads to death.

True Religion

True religion begins with regeneration (v. 13). Of His own will, He begets us. God works mysteriously, inexorably, and we cannot fully understand it. From our perspective, what are we to do? We recognize the problem with our rashness and anger (vv. 19-20). We are called to “lay aside” our sinfulness, and we are told to “receive with meekness” the engrafted word—which then does the work of saving our souls.

When this happens, a man starts to do what he reads. He stops looking in the mirror of forgetfulness. This man does what he reads because he sees himself in the mirror—he doesn’t hold up the mirror to look around the rest of the congregation. He therefore guards his tongue. He therefore is kind to the widow. He therefore keeps himself aloof from worldliness. This is the regenerate man.