The King’s English

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2 Timothy 2:1-7; 4:6-8

In the space of one verse Paul gives us three phrases:

“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7)

“Fighting the good fight”, “finishing the course” and “keeping the faith” have all become well-known.  Perhaps this trifecta of famous phrases is not surprising since Paul meant it to be memorable.

This is the last chapter of the last letter he wrote.  Tradition has it Paul was beheaded in Rome in AD67 and here is the epitaph he chooses for himself.  He’s a fighter, a runner, a perseverer.  As he approaches the end of his life he inspires us towards the same.

Paul is writing to his spiritual son Timothy, passing on the baton of gospel work.  Crucially, Paul was the last of a dying breed.  He had met with the risen Christ and been an eye-witness of His glory.  Soon there would be no-one left on earth who could say that.

So as the church’s last foundational apostle, how does Paul encourage the next generation?  Chapter 2 gives a sense of his burden.

Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.  Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully. The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits. Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.  (2 Timothy 2:1-7)

Paul knows that his eye-witness testimony will not die out with him.  In verse 2 he envisions four generations of gospel ministry.  From Paul to Timothy to Timothy’s trainees to their trainees.  On and on it goes until it reaches you and me.

But, of course, it doesn’t stop with us.  We too will commit this gospel message to others.  And they to others, and so on.  The saying is true: “God’s grace always runs downhill.”  It applies to proclamation too.  In fact grace and proclamation are almost synonyms.

From Christ’s exaltation and the Pentecostal outpouring, there has been a gospel flow which has reached even us.  Now we are caught up in its movement.

As I say this, though, I might be conjuring up the wrong kind of imagery – fountains and babbling brooks and floating along.  Paul’s imagery is much more robust.  How does it feel to be gripped by this gospel and pass it on?  Like a soldier, like an athlete, like a farmer.

Today let’s think about the soldier: enduring, obedient, single-minded.  For a soldier, all of life is channelled into the task in hand.  There might long periods when the soldier is not “at the front”, but they are always battle-ready.

At the end of it all, though, there is a goal.  Beyond the discipline and gruelling hard-work there is victory.

As Paul ends his final letter, this is where his mind goes – the end of his “good fight.”  Thus it completes an image he initiated with his first letter:

Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  (1 Corinthians 15:57)

From the outset, the victory is given.  But there’s still a fight and it lasts till the day we die.  One day, though, the fight will be fought.  Peace will reign and all of Christ’s soldiers will rest.

2 Timothy 3:14-4:5

One of the most pervasive myths of the modern world is this: We think we know what we want.  We think we know what’s best for us.  And we think we ourselves are the best judges of these matters.

The truth could not be further from this common misconception.

In the book of Proverbs, Wisdom spoke a frightening truth:

“All they that hate me love death.”  (Proverbs 8:36)

The natural state of the human heart is to be estranged from Christ our Wisdom.  And in that perverse condition our desires are completely twisted.  We hate the Fountain of Living Waters and we love the pit of curses and death.

Therefore what do we look for in our moral and spiritual guides?  The truth?  Never.  Not naturally.  Instead we look for leaders who will tell us what we want to hear.

Notice how Jesus put it: “Because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.” (John 8:45)

Jesus doesn’t say ‘In spite of my truth telling you don’t believe.’  He says ‘Because of my truth-telling you don’t believe.’  We are not naturally oriented to truth.  We flee it when it’s spoken.  Instead we ‘turn to fables’ as the Apostle Paul put it so memorably:

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.  (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

An “itching ear” is such an evocative phrase.  Itches aren’t just satisfied by scratching – they demand to be scratched.  They only seem to increase if they go un-heeded.  Paul says our ears are like this.  We don’t merely like to hear pleasant lies, we demand to hear them.  And Paul says there’s always a ready supply of phoney prophets who will scratch us where we itch.  It’s not just a problem for the last days.  The prophet Isaiah spoke of the same reality 8 centuries earlier:

This is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD: Which say to the seers, “See not;” and to the prophets, “Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.”   (Isaiah 30:9-11)

I don’t think Isaiah is imagining that the people are articulating these words.  I’m not sure any Israelite was literally saying “speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits.”  It’s just that they would not put up with God’s word, they reacted angrily to the truth of the gospel but warmly to the “smooth things.”  At an unspoken level they had struck a deal with the false prophets – “Tell us what we want to hear, and we’ll give you an eager audience.”  In every age people have found such a deal attractive.

Therefore we must question this myth of the modern world.  We do not know what is good for us.  As the Proverb says “Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out.” (Proverbs 20:5).  We don’t know ourselves very well.  We don’t know what we need.  We need The Man of understanding to tell us the truth.  We need truth to come to us from the outside.  The kind of truth we would never conceive ourselves.

The truth that says we are utterly lost and damned in ourselves but completely loved and redeemed in Jesus.  The truth that leaves our own desires and schemes out of the equation but takes up our cause anyway.  The truth that puts us to death on the cross and raises us up in resurrection.

Don’t trust your natural itches.  Don’t pursue the lies that puff you up.  Listen to the truth from beyond.  It will burst your bubble but, then, it will give you a hope you could never have dreamt of.  The truth from which we flee is the most extreme but wonderful news in the world.  It’s far worse than we’d ever feared – but far greater than we’d ever imagined.

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1 Timothy 6:1-12

Here’s a verse of the bible which everyone knows.  Except that they don’t.

1 Timothy 6:10 does not say “Money is the root of all evil.”  It says “the love of money is the root of all evil.”  And if we really wanted to pick up on the nuances in the Greek, we would render it: “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.”

Not quite as snappy though is it?  Which is why the blunt version has survived.  It has the advantage of being comprehensive, memorable and sensational.  It gets dropped in conversations as an epitaph when the banker is busted for fraud.  ”Ah, just goes to show, money is the root of all evil.”

The (mis)quote was commonly placarded at the Occupy movements last year.  When I spoke to protestors at St Paul’s I was surprised by how often the phrase was mentioned.  In fact I was surprised in general at how many spoke in biblical terms.  (And, by the way, their translation of choice seemed to be the good ol’ King James!)

As a placard it’s pleasingly reductionist.  If we’re looking for radical solutions (remember “radical” means going to the “root”) then money is an obvious target.  It’s simple then to focus on the financial system as the source of our woes – and, hey, biblical support just adds weight.  For some anyway.

But it was interesting when I spoke to one protestor about the verse.  I said to him, “Do you know that the verse doesn’t say “money is the root of all evil”?”  ”No?” he asked.  ”No, it says “the love of money is the root of all evil.  And you can love money whether you’re rich or poor can’t you?”

This hit home with him.  We’d just been chatting about the “fat cat bankers” who walked past St Paul’s every day.  He’d been wistfully spinning a tale of these bankers’ imagined lifestyles.  The protestor was unemployed, living in a tent, but he realised he was just as capable of a love of money as any pin-striped City worker.

He’d been plotting the demise of the global financial system.  He’d been speaking of “expropriating” the wealth of the 1% to build a better world.  But what if “money” wasn’t exactly the problem?  What if the “love” of money was the radical evil at the heart of us all?

There’s no ‘new world order’ that can get to the heart.  No fat cat tax can fix the affections.  If we’re looking for “roots” we need to go deeper than money.  We must get to the heart.

Don’t get me wrong, money can be a deadly trap.  As Paul has just said:

“They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.”  (1 Timothy 6:9)

Such strong language.  And just after our phrase, Paul says:

Some coveted after [money, and]… have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

Money is incredibly dangerous.  Just consider some of the phrases Jesus Himself gave us:

Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also

Ye cannot serve God and Mammon

A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions

Camel through the eye of a needle

Money has every chance of becoming a competing god in our lives.  In Paul’s language, it’s something that can “tempt”, “ensnare”, enflame “lust” and make us “covet”.  But money itself is not the problem.  It’s the love of money that is so dangerous.

Which is why Paul’s revolutionary teaching on riches does not focus on redistribution. Instead he rounds off the chapter  like this:

Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.  (1 Timothy 6:17-19)

Sharing the wealth is part of what Paul charges.  But that’s only part.  Notice the true riches Paul directs us to?  The living God gives us richly all things to enjoy.  Money promises to give us… freedom, comfort, protection, provision.  But money can’t really deliver on those things.  And if we trust in “uncertain riches” they will prove a snare.

Instead, look to the unsearchable riches of Christ, who is given to us so freely and so fully.  He is Heir of the cosmos and shares all things generously with us.  One day – in “the time to come” – He will show us our inheritance here on the renewed earth and it will take our breath away.  In the words of Isaiah we will see the King in His beauty and a land that stretches afar (Isaiah 33:17).

How can money hold a candle to Christ?

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1 Thessalonians 1:1-9

The Christian life is one of waiting and of working.

Advent puts us in mind of the waiting.  We look not only to Christ’s first coming, but ahead to His second coming, to judge the living and the dead.

Here is how Old Testament saints waited for that first coming:

“I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.  My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning:  I say, more than they that watch for the morning.  Let Israel hope in the LORD:  for with the LORD there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. 8 And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.”  (Psalm 130:5-8)

The long-awaited Lord did indeed come to redeem Israel from all their iniquities.  But His first coming does not do away with waiting.

Paul explains this in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 (the passage from which our phrase originates).  He narrates the conversion story of the Thessalonians:

“Ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.”   (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10)

The Christian waits for Christ to come again.  We don’t wait nervously for ‘Judgement Day’, unsure of the outcome.  No, through His first coming Christ delivered us from the coming wrath.  We wait confidently as those who love Him and long to see Him face to face.

When I was engaged to my wife we were on opposite sides of the planet.  In fact our relationship was ‘long-distance’ for over a year.  But here’s what kept me faithful to her – and more than that, here’s what kept our long-distance relationship positively vibrant:  We were waiting for our wedding day.  And that expectancy shaped virtually every minute of our lives.  Simply waiting for this future rendered any notions of infidelity unthinkable.  Waiting was not an absence of activity.  It wasn’t a lack that needed filling.  It was not a nothing preceding a something.  It was a something of enormous substance.  Waiting in this sense is a tangible reality.

So it is with the Christian.  We wait to see Jesus.

But how do we wait?  Like the picture above?  Scanning the sky for signs of His coming?  Scouring the newspapers for clues to His advent?

We’re called to be on the welcoming committee, but many want to be in the planning group.  It’s something Jesus refuses to bring us in on.  Just before He ascended His followers wanted to get an eschatological timetable from Him:

“When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?  And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.  But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you:  and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”  (Acts 1:6-8)

They wanted to know times and seasons.  Jesus says ‘That’s not your job!  Your job is to be witnesses to the ends of the earth.’

We do not wait by worrying about when.  We wait by witnessing.

It’s interesting how Acts 1 continues.  Jesus ascends to heaven, the disciples are – understandably, you’d think – gazing into the heavens.  But angels appear to tell them to stop gawping at the skies (Acts 1:10-11).  The posture of the church, as we wait for Christ, is not stationary, faces heavenwards.  Instead our posture is shaped by Acts 1:8 – we’ve been given our marching orders and out we go – to the ends of the earth as witnesses of Christ.

And so in the same chapter that tells us of the Thessalonians “waiting for God’s Son from heaven” Paul also gives us this description of their current life:

“[We remember] without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”  (1 Thessalonians 1:3)

Here again is Paul’s famous trio:  faith, hope and love.  Our faith looks back to Christ’s first coming and it inspires work.  Our hope looks forward to Christ’s second coming and brings patience.  And love is the atmosphere of our present lives – confident of the salvation Christ has won, and expectant of the cosmic redemption He will bring.  Now we are free from having to build our own identity or secure our own future.  Now we can love.  And this love will be a busy, active thing.  It is a “labour of love.”

We’re not working towards our vindication, our joy, our purpose in life. We’re working from that sure gift from Christ.  Therefore Christian work is a “labour of love.”

Are your Christian efforts “a labour of love”?  If they’re feeling more of a “millstone around your neck“, then these aren’t the kind of labours that will honour Jesus.  Let me suggest that you may have forgotten the other two elements of the trio.  Remember, we have a sure faith, grounded in Christ’s first coming.  And we have a certain hope, expectant of His second coming.  If you want to rekindle the love: look again to Christ this Advent – His faultless work for you and your expectant wait for Him.  A fresh vision of Jesus turns labour into “a labour of love.”

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Colossians 3:1-17

Anyone who’s really loved (or feared) knows that the heart is not the only emotional organ.  Some of our greatest loves and our greatest fears are felt a little further south – in the guts!

So while we might be used to speaking of a sinking heart, the Scriptures are comfortable speaking of churning bowels!

Genesis 43:30 “And Joseph made haste; for his bowels did yearn upon his brother [Benjamin]”

Song of Solomon 5:4 “My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him.”

Jeremiah 4:19 “[The LORD says] My bowels, my bowels!  I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me;”

Lamentations 1:20 “Behold, O LORD; for I am in distress:  my bowels are troubled”

We speak of gut-wrenching emotions.  The King James Bible, in faithfulness to the underlying Hebrew and Greek, just takes that language one step further.  And notice that all of these visceral reactions are right and good responses to the situation.  You might call them healthy bowel movements.  On the other hand, a lack of compassion is considered to be a nasty bowel complaint.  So to the loveless Corinthians Paul writes:

“ye are straitened in your own bowels.”  (2 Corinthians 6:12)

And John describes a loveless Christian who has “shutteth up his bowels of compassion.”  (1 John 3:17).

Therefore there is great need for our sluggish bowels to be “refreshed.” Apparently Philemon was particularly good at this:

“For we have great joy and consolation in thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother.”   (Philemon 1:7)

“Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord:  refresh my bowels in the Lord.”  (Philemon 1:20)

What would it mean to be refreshed in this way?  Well Paul speaks of a change that has already happened to the Christian.  It’s foundational to our emotional renewal.

“Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;”  (Colossians 3:12)

The Christian is elect of God (that is, chosen – choice in the Father’s eyes). The Christian is holy (that is, special – set apart as His own).  The Christian is beloved (that is, a child of the King and dearly loved).

Notice in all these things that Christians are what Christ is.  Christ is the original and eternal Elect One.  Christ is the original and eternal Holy One.  Christ is the original and eternal Beloved Son.  And, by faith, we come to share in His status and life.

Therefore, says Paul, since we are such a people, let us put on His bowels of mercies.  Here is one more way we will share in Christ’s life – to share in His stomach-churning love.  You see it is Christ who loves with a visceral, gut-wrenching passion.

Let me explain.  There is a verb form of the Greek word for “bowels”.  It means, most basically, to be moved in ones bowels, but the KJV translates it more idiomatically as “moved with compassion.”  This word is used only in the Gospels and only to describe the emotional life of Jesus.

Matthew 9:36 “But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them…”

Matthew 14:14 “And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them…”

Matthew 15:32 “Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the multitude…”

Matthew 20:34 “So Jesus had compassion on [the two blind men], and touched their eyes…”

Mark 1:41 “And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched [the leper]…”

Luke 7:13 “And when the Lord saw [the widow], he had compassion on her…”

In addition to these Gospel accounts there are three characters in Christ’s parables that are said to be moved with compassion:  The King of the Unmerciful Servant, The Good Samaritan and The Father of the Prodigal Son.  We’ve seen previously how each of these are a pictures of Christ Himself.  It is Christ’s character to be moved with pity in His innermost parts.  Churned up inside.  Profoundly stirred towards mercy and love.

And not only does Christ share with us His standing before the Father, He shares with us His “bowels of mercies.”  When we love our brothers and sisters we are participating in Christ’s love for them.  We are “moved with compassion” in the name of Jesus.  That’s why Paul is able to say that he longs after the Philippians “in the bowels of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:8)  Paul loves with the very love of Jesus.

So please don’t think me rude, I’m only being biblical, but how are your bowel movements?  You know what I mean.  Are your bowels of mercies straitened and shut up?  Or are you moved with compassion?

Return to the Lord Jesus by faith.  See His compassion – perhaps read one of the Gospel stories from the quotes above. Allow yourself to be moved once again.  As a chosen, holy and beloved child of God, Christ’s compassion is yours.

Philippians 3:1-4:9

We can often feel besieged by worries.  Demands seem to threaten us from every side.  We dare not step out into our calling lest we be crushed by pressures too great for us.

Some of us respond by shutting down.  “There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets” we cry, bolting the door against such dangers (Proverbs 22:13).  Others of us raise a war cry and run into battle, confident of our own powers.  Paul has a different approach.

He says “Be careful for nothing.”

In the Greek, it’s the exact same phrase as Jesus’ repeated command of Matthew 6: “Take no thought”.  It means “Don’t have many and divided thoughts.”  Easier said than done.  When we’re besieged by worries our minds run in a thousand directions at once.  But Paul (and Jesus) counsel us to stop: “Be careful for nothing.”  It’s an all-embracing negative.  And it’s followed by an all-inclusive positive:

“In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”

Paul doesn’t tell us to squash our many fears.  Instead he invites us to view them as “requests”.  Did you realise that all of your worries are actually requests?  Requests which so often go unexpressed.  Requests which God Himself is eager to hear.

What does this assume about ourselves and about God?

First, it assumes that we’re not very good at discerning our many desires… let alone expressing them… let alone addressing them to God.  But, second, it assumes that we have a God who is intimately concerned for our many troubles.  As the Lord’s Prayer teaches us, we have a Father who is not only interested in His kingdom coming but also in our daily bread.

Therefore, of course we pray “with thanksgiving.”  We are grateful for a Father so kind and so powerful that He attends to our every supplication.

The little phrase “with thanksgiving” is so easily forgotten.  But there can be no peace if we simply bring our shopping lists to God.  Without an awareness of the grace of our Father and an attendant gratitude, all our petitioning is liable to heighten our fears, not allay them.  But with faith in a generous Father, Paul attaches this promise to our prayers…

“the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

Here is something unknown to the world.  Not just stress management but a peace that “passeth all understanding.”  No mere trick of the mind can deliver what Paul offers here.  There can be no earthly explanation of this peace.  It’s beyond our wit and wisdom.  Because this is a peace that wages war on our fears.

What do I mean?  Well the word for “keep” is very strong.  Paul uses it in two other places.  In 2 Corinthians he uses it to describe a garrison of soldiers guarding a city (2 Corinthians 11:32).  In Galatians 3, he speaks of the saints of old “shut up” under the Mosaic law (Galatians 3:23).  It’s a word that means “hold prisoner” or “besiege.”

So this is the reversal of our fears.  Right now you may feel besieged by worries. But there is a cavalry.  There is a greater force to call on.  ”Through Christ Jesus” you have perfect access to a generous Father.  So then, turn your problems to prayers and know: it’s His peace that besieges you.

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Philippians 2:1-30

William Tyndale gave us the word, “likeminded”, but what gives us the reality?

On the internet it’s easy to find “people like us”.  No matter how specialist our interests might be, the online world is so large, any subgroup at all can find “likeminded” members.

But what about in the local church?  What about in face to face community where people of all ages, races and cultures are called together by the Spirit?  How can we find unity there?

That was a big concern for Paul in his letter to the Philippians.  There were high profile spats within the congregation and it was affecting the witness of the church.  Therefore Paul urges these Christians:

“… be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.  Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.”  (Philippians 2:2-3)

Notice how important singleness of mind is to Paul.  But how will it come about?

Well the answer, as always, is in Jesus.  Paul writes in verse 5:

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:”

The mind we are to be like is Christ’s.  And what is the mind of Christ? Well in the following verses, Paul either writes or quotes from a stunning hymn that reveals the eternal thought-life of the Son of God:

“Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:  But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:  And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”  (Philippians 2:6-8)

You and I did not choose to be born.  The eternal Christ did!  He made up His mind to take flesh.  This is incredible.  Because if I ever did have the choice to be born, I would not have chosen what Jesus chose.  If I was in the form of God, surrounded by the worship of heaven, in the direct presence of my Father, I would not have chosen the birth, life and death which the Son of God determined for Himself.   Jesus chose a life of “no reputation”, of service (slavery even), humility, obedience and death – even the godforsaken death of the cross.

When we see the baby in the manger, it’s like watching a man falling.  He has come from the highest heights.  And on Christmas morning we see Him heading down, down, down, from heaven to earth, and eventually to hell on that cross.

And all of this happens because Jesus made up His mind to serve. Being in the form of God He has a mind to serve.  And – this is crucial to understand – such service was not a departure from the divine glory, it is the very expression of it.  The true Godness of God is shown when Christ climbs down off the throne and pours Himself out as a servant.  Wriggling in the manger, writhing on the cross – there is the expression of true deity.  And when the Father sees His Son pouring Himself out in service…

“Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:  That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  (Philippians 2:9-11)

Because of the crib and the cross, therefore the Father says “Have the crown!”  What is crowned is the self-emptying love of the crib and the cross.  The Father vindicates suffering love as the true display of divine glory.  He vindicates the suffering Servant as the true LORD of heaven and earth.

And one day everyone will bow the knee to Jesus, the LORD.  They will do so because He poured out His life to death.

“Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.” (Revelation 5:12)

One day the whole world will recognise what the Father has declared in exalting Jesus to His right hand:  The sacrificial Servant is LORD.  Humble, self-abandoning love is enthroned as the very heart-beat of deity.  The mind of the Servant is the mind of God.

And so Paul says:  “Be likeminded… let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”  (Philippians 2:2,5)

We are a fractious bunch, we humans.  But here’s the solution.  The Christian has their thinking completely reoriented by the mind of Christ.  Humility is greatness, service is glory,  but sacrifice is divine.  When we really think like that we will esteem each other better than ourselves.

You see the saying from today’s picture is wrong.  Or at least it needs recalibrating by the gospel of Christ.  But the reality is this:  Humble minds think alike.

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Ephesians 4:1-32

In his wonderful book on Ephesians, Watchman Nee observes that the letter can be divided into three movements:  “Sit, Walk, Stand.”

We are seated in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. (Eph 2:6)

We then walk worthy of our calling in Christ. (Eph 4:1)

And we stand against the assaults of the evil one. (Eph 6:10-17)

The order is important.  First we learn our true position in Christ – raised, forgiven, adopted, beloved and inheriting the cosmos.  Then we learn how to walk out into the world on that basis.  Finally we learn how to stand against Satan’s attacks, knowing that we already hold the high ground.

As far as Nee was concerned, all our problems in the Christian life stem from a failure to appreciate our seatedness.  When we try to walk before we have sat, we fall down!  We imagine that Christianity consists of performing certain duties or cultivating certain characteristics.  Yet our new life really has been given to us in Jesus.

Thus, as he turns from “Sit” (Ephesians 1-3) to “Walk” (Ephesians 4-5) Nee makes this comment:

“God has given us Christ.  There is nothing now for us to receive outside of Him.  The Holy Spirit has been sent to produce what is of Christ in us; not to produce anything that is apart from or outside of Him…We have been accustomed to look upon holiness as a virtue, upon humility as a grace, upon love as a gift to be sought from God.  But the Christ of God is Himself everything that we shall ever need… Our life is the life of Christ, mediated in us by the indwelling Holy Spirit Himself.”

Given that this is so, the very first area of our “walk” which Paul addresses is the realm of “words” (Ephesians 4:1-25).  In the word, Christ is given to us again by the Spirit.  Therefore the body of Christ is a word-full body.  We are forever returning to the gospel word to tell us of our true position – seated at God’s right hand.  In spite of all worldly evidence to the contrary, we walk by faith not by sight.  In other words, we “walk” by the “word”.  Thus we are constantly “speaking the truth in love [that we] may grow up into him in all things.” (Ephesians 4:15)

As Paul considers this, he raises the issue of words that go wrong.  In verse 29 he will talk about “corrupt communication.”  In verse 31 he exhorts us to put away “evil speaking”.  But in verse 26 he writes our fascinating little verse:

“Be ye angry, and sin not:  let not the sun go down upon your wrath.”  (Ephesians 4:26)

Paul is aware that anger is a reality in our daily communication.  If we’re not tempted to daily anger, perhaps we are not walking with our brothers and sisters in close enough communion!

Anger arises when our desires are thwarted (James 4:1-3).  Most often our desires are inappropriate, but sometimes our desires are good and proper and therefore their frustration involves a righteous anger.  In such situations we are to “be angry and not sin.”  The anger is not to be suppressed but addressed.  And addressed quickly.

In the Bible, days end at sunset because each day is a microcosm (a little world).  Each day begins in darkness (at dusk), but the light triumphs over the darkness.  If that is the story of the world, then it must be the story of our lives.  Darkness must not have the last word in our relationships.  We must end with the light of grace and reconciliation.

Therefore Paul exhorts us to sort out our quarrels before the day is out. In this way we will be imitators of God.  His final word to the world is not wrath but mercy.  Notice how Paul grounds all our human acts of reconciliation in God’s great reconciliation in Christ.

“Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.  Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us.”  (Ephesians 4:32-5:2)

Sit in that truth – Christ has loved us and given Himself for us.  We are at peace with the living God, though it cost Him everything to secure it. Now walk by that light.

Are there people you need to reconcile with?  “Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.”

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Ephesians 3:1-21

What is the message of Christianity for the world?  If you could boil it down, what is the proclamation of the church?  Paul has a wonderful summary in Ephesians 3:8.

John Wycliffe translated it:  “the vnserchable richessis of Crist”.

William Tyndale put it as:  “the unsearchable ryches of Christ.”

And, in that tradition, the King James Bible rendered the verse like this:

“Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.”

This is the subject of Paul’s preaching: “Christ’s riches.”

He uses the word “riches” six times in Ephesians (1:7,18; 2:4,7; 3:8,16). It’s the word that describes Abraham’s wealth (Genesis 13:2), and Solomon’s (1 Kings 3:13), and ‘the rich man’s’ (Mark 10:25).  Yet Christ’s abundance far surpasses these “rich men.”  It is “unsearchable.”

How do we feel about the super-rich?  Envy?  Contempt?  Fear?  Well Christ has “unsearchable riches”.  He’s not just “the 1%,” He’s the 0.000000000000001%.  What do we feel about His fabulous wealth?

Actually Paul feels brim full of joy and gratitude.  Because these riches are riches of grace and mercy.  Christ is not only stinking rich, He is a profligate philanthropist, as we shall see.

Let’s trace through Paul’s use of “riches” in Ephesians.

We begin before the foundation of the world with Christ, the Father’s heavenly storehouse (Ephesians 1:3).  From eternity He commits all things into the Son’s hands (John 3:35).  The nations are His inheritance (Psalm 2:8).  The whole creation is a love gift for Him (Colossians 1:15-16).  Christ has unsearchable riches because He is the Father’s Firstborn, the Heir Apparent, the Beloved Son.  But just as these riches flow from Father to Son, so they overflow from Christ to the world.  Such riches are a super-abundance of divine love and generosity, and so…

“God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved).”  (Ephesians 2:4-5)

God’s riches are riches of mercy. And they are lavished on we, the dirt poor.  We weren’t just “in the gutter” we had “bitten the dust” – dead in sins.  Yet the Father’s fabulous wealth is employed in raising us up with Christ.  This wealth is expended in a costly “redemption”…

“In [Christ] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;” (Ephesians 1:7-8)

These divine riches are not drawn down without cost.  The astonishing mercy of Christ is purchased with His own blood.  Yet, in His grace, He pays this ultimate price for our freedom and forgiveness.

Now we stand as witnesses to heaven and earth of our generous Father:

“God hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:  That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.”  (Ephesians 2:6-7)

God is rich and will be known as rich.

But perhaps you don’t feel able to appreciate this wealth.  Maybe you’re not feeling the benefits of this incredible union with Christ?  Well God’s riches don’t just bestow grace, they also enable you to appreciate such grace:

“[I pray that the Father] would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.” (Ephesians 3:16-17)

Here is a wonderful truth:  God even has riches that awaken us to the riches that He’s already bestowed!  Talk about grace upon grace.

So God’s present riches make us appreciate His past riches.  But, more than this, Paul prays we would know His future riches too…

“[I pray] that ye may know… the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.”  (Ephesians 1:18)

What a day of sumptuous opulence!  What overwhelming prosperity we will enjoy when we are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ of the whole cosmos.  To cap it all off, that day will be the day that the Lord inherits us, His saints.  How incredible – the riches that will flow when Christ returns!

What can we do in the meantime except…

“…to preach among the nations the unsearchable riches of Christ.”  (Ephesians 3:8)

Christ is the storehouse of the Father’s overflowing bounty.  We are beggars, more than destitute in our sins.  Yet, through Christ, we have been adopted as heirs into that eternal royal Family.

We call on an “Abba, Father” who is mind-blowingly rich and who, literally, loves us to death!  Does that change the way you approach your day today?

Maybe your earthly father had short arms and deep pockets.  Or long arms and shallow pockets.  Or crossed arms and closed pockets.

Your Father in heaven is different.  In Jesus we have come to a Father who is both super-wealthy and over-flowingly kind.  So rejoice in your generous God.  And preach to the world “the unsearchable riches of Christ.”

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Galatians 6:1-18

The saying is instantly recognisable as religious.  Even if few people know where it comes from, most will assume it’s biblical.  And they’ll assume that they know what it means.

It’s about cause and effect right?  It’s saying:  ‘What goes around, comes around.’  ‘If you play with fire, you’re going to get burned.’  ‘Everyone gets what they deserve.’

Perhaps we think it’s the Bible’s version of Karma – a conditional, performance-based spirituality where the books will all balance and justice will have the last word.  Therefore, Look out sinners – a man reaps what he sows.

But actually Paul’s letter to the Galatians (from which our phrase comes) radically subverts this way of thinking.

He begins the letter by pronouncing a deadly anathema on anyone who denies or perverts the gospel of grace (Galatians 1:6-9).  Even the Apostle Peter gets a blast from Paul when he forgets the truth of our gracious justification (Galatians 2:11-21).  Paul is at pains to show that true righteousness has never been won by moral obedience but only by faith alone (Galatians 3-4).  It is Christ who earns our salvation through His life, death and resurrection – not us.  We are incapable of producing the life of God.  The “flesh” we have inherited from Adam (our old nature) cannot work righteousness – though it constantly tries to do so.  One of the characteristics of the “flesh” is its desire to self-justify.  The flesh loves to live under the law in order to boast in its moral abilities.  But no, Christ works righteousness for us, without any assistance from us.  Then, wonderfully, we are “clothed in Christ” as the Spirit unites us to Him (Galatians 3:26-4:7).

Therefore a Christian is someone who has their flesh from Adam, but their Spirit from Christ.  While the flesh produces Adam-like sin and death, the Spirit bears Christ-like fruit in our lives (Galatians 5).

Therefore Paul exhorts us to live in accordance with the truth.  We ought to walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh.  That is, we ought to dwell on Christ’s performance and not our own.  We ought to be about Christ’s doing and not our own.

In that context we come to our verse for today:

“Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.  For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”  (Galatians 6:7-8)

It turns out that Paul isn’t affirming a Christian Karma after all.  Actually he’s speaking against it.  You see the way of the flesh is the way of earning, performance and self-glorification.  But Paul says – that is a perishing path.  To invest in that is to invest in corruption itself.  There is an organic union between flesh and death.  To sow on this soil reaps exactly what you’d expect.

Yet there is another kind of life.  And it’s not life ‘under the law.’  It’s not about getting your just deserts.  The way of the Spirit is the way of grace. He is always bringing us the things of Christ (John 16:15).  To ‘sow’ to the Spirit is to invest in the gospel word and live by this truth from beyond ourselves.  So, again, there is an organic union, this time between the Spirit and life.  There’s no sense of reward or earning here, it’s just natural that dwelling in Christ and He in us will bear good fruit.

A man indeed reaps what he sows.  But this is not the law of ‘just deserts’, this is the truth of undeserved mercy.  Stop sowing to the way of Adam, the way of flesh, the way of boasting, the way of performance, the way of law.  That life is over for you.  Only corruption can be reaped there. Instead, allow the Spirit draw you into the unshakeable love of the Father and Son:

“God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.”  (Galatians 4:6)

This is the truth of our position – filled with the Spirit, united to the Son, calling on the Father.  Receive that sure reality by faith and you are sowing on very fertile ground.