“If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small” (Proverbs 24:10).
The concept in this verse has found its way into various sayings. “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” As a distance runner in both high school and university, I had another version: “When the going gets tough, the sprinters stop.” I’m not sure it fostered team unity….
It has been said, “The measure of a man is what it takes to stop you.” Certainly, it reflects on our character if we give up easily in the face of difficulty.
Sometimes, Proverbs can seem pretty blunt, and this is one of those verses. If you wear out and give up when things are hard, in your “day of adversity”, you are a weakling. Bam. Take that, you wimp!
Right now, someone reading this is saying, “Thanks a lot, Jon. I come here for encouragement and help, and you just beat up on me. So I’m a weakling. I knew that already — last thing I need is some guy on the Internet rubbing salt in my wounds!”
At this point, we’ll pause for a moment to let you Prospect the Perimeter of Pity Party Pit. Search it all out, make sure you’ve experienced all the angst it has for you. It won’t do you any good, and you won’t get any real help or sympathy down there, but take your time, and when you are ready to come up again we’ll toss you a rope so you can climb out. Ready? Good!
If you are a weakling, you’d better stop being one, because God doesn’t intend you to be that way. The first strand of the rope I’ll throw you is from Isaiah 40:29-31:
He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Weaklings get strong by waiting on the Lord — by trusting Him with an earnest expectation that He is going to work in your “day of adversity”.
Another strand, from Philippians 4:13:
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
In your day of adversity, Christ will strengthen you. “Yes! That’s great! If Christ is all-powerful (Matthew 28:18), and HE is strengthening me, then I can handle this day of adversity!” …. “Er, um, that sort of means I have no excuse, doesn’t it? Uh-oh.” That about sums it up, really. There is both joy and responsibility here. But since this is a rope, and we didn’t toss it to you until you were ready to climb out, we’ll assume you already figured out the responsibility part, and so we’ll focus on the joy of it. If Christ loved you enough to die for you, don’t you think He’ll strengthen you for daily struggles?
Yet another cord of the rope, from Romans 8:28-29:
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Yes, God is working your “day of adversity” for good. You knew that, of course, you’ve probably heard verse 28 about a million times. What we often forget in our days of adversity is that God’s agenda isn’t really our agenda. We want a comfortable and relatively easy life, with lots of good stuff happening to us and only enough bad stuff to make the good times seem better. We certainly don’t want anything really bad or unpleasant to happen to us, even if we might deserve it. That’s not my plan for my life, and God better go along with my plan, because I know what’s good for me. (Well, we might not actually say that, but lots of times that is what our thoughts boil down to.)
God’s “agenda” for my life is different from my agenda. His plan is to make me like Jesus Christ. He wants to take me home to Heaven with Him, and I’m not really fit for that yet. He’s going to keep working on me here and now, and then one day He’ll finish the job once and for all. Until then, I’d better accept that my “days of adversity” aren’t in my agenda, but He knew about them long ago, and He is using them as well as the good days to work out His plan.
Every distance runner knows that you can keep going longer than you think you can. To really be successful as a runner, you have to go through mental barriers. It’s true in our daily walk with the Lord, too. One of the biggest mental barriers, when we face those “days of adversity”, is that we view them through our agenda, rather than the Lord’s. If we saw those days through His eyes, instead of fainting, giving up, weeping and wailing, and diving into Pity Party Pit, we would instead learn to obey the command of I Thessalonians 5:18: “In everything give thanks.” “Everything” includes “days of adversity”.
Don’t faint, never give up. Wait on the Lord. Remember that Christ is strengthening you. Trust Him that He is working out His agenda, and that it is better than yours, and give Him thanks for it. You might be surprised at how strong He will make you.
I was thinking about yesterday’s post, and concluded I should have mentioned something.
The trigger for yesterday’s post was a recent polemic against cessationists by a very well-known pastor, in which he said cessationism is worldliness, and likened it to atheism and deism. He describes cessationists as saying, “God could do a miracle but He doesn’t and He won’t, but He could.” He calls that view modernistic rationalism, and then cites Hebrews 13:8, which says Jesus was the same yesterday, today and forever.
As far as I know, this pastor doesn’t go out looking for manna in the mornings. I suspect we could sum up his view of manna with this: “God could send manna but He doesn’t and He won’t, but He could.” So does he think Jesus has changed — or is that argument intellectually bankrupt?
I didn’t mention this yesterday, because I didn’t want to link to this pastor, for various reasons. If anyone really wants to know who he is, you can contact me on my contact page. But the point is, there really are people who make the arguments I mentioned yesterday, including people who should know better.
God is indeed immutable (unchanging). He says, “I am the LORD, I change not” (Malachi 3:6). Jesus Christ is the same, always was, always will be. But never let anyone tell you that God is “in a box” of always having to do the exact same things in the exact same way. If anyone ever does try to tell you that, ask him how much manna he gathered this morning for breakfast.
I’ve never really liked the term “cessationist”, but it seems to be too commonly used to ignore it. It isn’t a word we see in Scripture (though “cease” is), and different people use it to mean different things, which adds to confusion.
Broadly speaking, “cessationism” is the belief that some spiritual gifts have ceased. There are differing views on which gifts have ceased, when, and why. One key verse for the cessationist point of view is I Corinthians 13:8:
Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
This clearly indicates there will be a time when certain spiritual gifts, at least, will cease. It doesn’t say when, although the context gives us some clues.
I’ve heard a cessationist argue that all spiritual gifts have ceased. I’ve heard others argue that only the gift of tongues has ceased. Some believe that some of these things have ceased as a permanent spiritual gift, but that God may still work in miraculous ways in specific circumstances for a specific purpose. There are many different views that go under the title “cessationism”, which is one of the drawbacks of the term.
On the other side of the stream are “continuationists”. Of course, the spiritual gifts all continue. “Jesus Christ the same, yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Hebrews 13:8). How dare those crazy cessationists teach that Jesus has changed! They are “putting God in a box”. “The promise is to you, and to your children” (Acts 2:39), so of course the gifts continue. Those seem to be the three most commonly used continuationist arguments, but they have to be three of the weakest.
Jesus Christ was the same in the past as He is today and always will be, but no one (as far as I know) believes the spiritual gift of tongues was given before Pentecost. Did Jesus change on the Day of Pentecost when the gift was given? If not, then the starting (or ceasing) of a spiritual gift says nothing about whether the nature of our Saviour has changed, and the constancy of His nature says nothing about whether God will change in the manner of His dealings with us.
In fact, we are all “cessationists”, in some ways. To my “continuationist” readers, I have a few questions:
When someone gives a prophecy, do you consider whether it should be written down and included in the Bible, with new Bibles distributed around the world? Has God ceased doing something He did in the past — giving Scripture by inspiration (I Timothy 3:16)? Which new Scriptures do you believe He has given in the last 1900 years? Which Scriptures were written between 400 BC and 50 AD? Doesn’t the Bible you hold in your hand demonstrate that God stops working in some ways, often for extended periods of time?
If someone in your church gives a prophecy and it doesn’t come true, do you stone the prophet? If not, you believe there have been some changes involving prophecy (Deuteronomy 18:20-22).
Where do you go to make an animal sacrifice when you sin? To the tabernacle at Shiloh (Joshua 18:1), or to the temple in Jerusalem (I Kings 8:1)? Do you believe the right place to offer sacrifices has changed?
You do go to Jerusalem every year for the feasts of Passover/Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, and Tabernacles, don’t you (Exodus 23:14-17)? While you are there for Pentecost, which believers in your travelling party miraculously speak Parthian, Mede, or Elamite (Acts 2:9-11)? Do your believing children speak Arabian while they are there (verse 39)?
Do you gather enough manna for each day every morning except Friday? On Friday, do you gather enough to last through the Sabbath the next day also (Exodus 16:15-23)?
OK, some of this is kind of silly. I recognise that — but it isn’t pointless.
It isn’t “putting God in a box” to say that He doesn’t send manna now (Joshua 5:12). Manna was given for a specific time and purpose (Deuteronomy 8:3, 16). You aren’t “limiting God” if you didn’t go out to look for bread on the ground this morning.
It isn’t denying the immutability (unchanging nature) of Christ to say that God has given us the complete Scriptures, and so is no longer inspiring new texts. Sure, He gave us Scripture in the past, but that doesn’t mean He has to keep doing so now. It isn’t wrong to say that God doesn’t expect us to keep the Jewish feasts (Colossians 2:16). God gives the gift of the Holy Spirit to all believers, including our believing children (Acts 2:39). It isn’t denying that fact to say that we don’t expect our children to speak Phrygian (or Arabic, or Russian, or whatever) on the Day of Pentecost.
The question is not whether Jesus has changed, or whether God is being put in a box. We are all “cessationists” in the sense that we all believe God’s working, including His miraculous/supernatural working, has changed over time. God doesn’t change, but through the centuries, as He has revealed more and more of His nature to mankind, the ways He has worked and revealed Himself have changed (Hebrews 1:1-2). That is something all believers accept.
The cessationist/continuationist question, then, is not whether God will work in different ways in different times for different purposes. He does, and we all believe that. Nor is it whether or not God could work in the same way He did in the past. Everyone believes God could still send manna every day. The question is whether He chose to changethe way He works in regard to spiritual gifts. Were some spiritual gifts given only for a specific time and purpose, which has now been fulfilled?
For the answer, we would have to look, not at Scriptures that teach the unchanging nature of God (that is indisputable), but at Scriptures that tell us about the spiritual gifts. Perhaps I’ll post further on that question at some point in the future.
We are all “cessationists”. The only question is what the Scriptures teach about exactly what has ceased. But that’s all I’m going to say on the topic for now. Since I have to provide for my family and there isn’t manna on the ground outside, I need to get to work.
“The slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets” (Proverbs 22:13).
As I read this verse this morning, and decided to write about it today, I decided to wait until after I had gone for my run this morning. As a result, I spent a lot of time thinking about it while performing the unnatural act of willingly inflicting pain on myself. This had two unanticipated “benefits”. First, I can feel smug with false virtue over my efforts of the morning while I write about slothfulness. Second, I have a feeble excuse if my writing sounds like the confused ramblings of an oxygen-starved brain. 🙂
My kids surely knew I would write about this verse sometime, because they’ve heard it enough times, especially when one of them might be reluctant about disengaging his (or her) carcase from his mattress in the morning. “STILL in bed? There’s a lion in the street! I shall be slain!” I think it was probably tough growing up with a dad like me, but they seem to have come through it without too many scars. Somehow.
OF LAZINESS AND LIONS
As I thought over this verse, several things came to mind. I’m not going to tell you this verse was intended to teach all these things, but simply that thinking about it triggered these thoughts for me. Maybe some of them will be profitable for you.
Lazy people always have an excuse. Laziness breeds excuse-making.
Laziness is a big problem in our society, including among those who are reading this, in all probability. In fact, someone reading this probably shouldn’t be on the Internet at all at the time. If this is you, GET AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER and come back when you have taken care of your responsibilities! “I need to read this” is sometimes roughly equivalent to “there’s a lion out there.” Read it later after you’ve gone out, chased away the pesky lion, and done what you are supposed to do.
Everyone knows that lions don’t hang around the streets too often, but lazy people will use excuses that no one else believes. Often, they don’t even seem aware that no one else will believe them. It isn’t always a good idea to tell them this, because we don’t want to educate them on how to be better liars. Sometimes, the excuses are amazing! Perhaps a slothful person has more time to think up this stuff.
Laziness and fear are often related, and the lazy person may start to believe the excuses they give. Perhaps sometimes slothfulness breeds fear and sometimes fear breeds slothfulness. Neither have any place in the life of a believer.
People who make excuses have far worse situations in life than anyone else. Have you ever noticed that? I mean, how much worse can it get than having a lion lurking outside your house waiting for you? My life is definitely worse than my neighbour’s — there’s a lion in my street! (thinking about that one….) Show me a person who has adopted excuse making as his way of dealing with life, and I’ll show you a person whose molehills have become mountains, whose everyday trials have become enormous traumas, and whose neighbour’s cat has become a lion.
Slothfulness has done a lot more damage than lions.
If there does happen to be a lion outside, no one is going to believe the sluggard when he reports it. Lazy people destroy their own credibility.
There have been reports of big cats roaming the Fife countryside for several years, including around Coul Reservoir, where I ran this morning. Despite that, I was not slain — but I’ll get to work now, before the lion gets me.
Harry turned up for our very first Sunday when Free Baptist Church was born. Harry was one of the nicest people you would ever meet, a committed believer who is now with the Lord. He knew the Word of God, he tried to live it, and there was no question of his faith and love. Harry was indeed an ambassador for Christ. When you have a man like Harry in your church, you ask his advice on almost everything.
One of my favourite stories of Harry goes back to the time we had been back in the U.S. for a couple of months. I had been driving on the right-hand side of the road for two months, and all those old habits came to the fore again. On Saturday, Harry phoned to ask if I could give him a lift to church the next day — his car had broken down.
When I arrived to pick him up, he had walked out to the street to save me having to drive in to get him (typical of Harry, thinking of others). He was standing on the right side of the road so I pulled over to that side, and he walked around the car and got in.
It was so good to see him. I hadn’t seen him for a couple of months, and there was much to say, so as soon as he was in the car, we started talking, and I was very focused on the conversation as we pulled away from the kerb.
Yes, I had been driving on the right-hand side for two months, and I was to the right after he got in the car, and we were talking. So of course, I drove off on the right-hand side of the road. It was Sunday morning, there weren’t any other cars, and I just drove.
I came to the end of the street, signaled to the left (from the right side of the road), and as there were no cars, I turned left, onto the right hand side of THAT road. Another block, and it got tricky — a roundabout. Something didn’t seem quite right, but Harry and I were talking, and I signaled to the left (from the right-hand side) and then went anti-clockwise around the roundabout! When leaving the roundabout, I dutifully indicated to the right, and went off down THIS road on the wrong side. Like I said, something didn’t seem right….
On this road, there are always cars parked on the left hand side, but not the right, and you have to move out around them. Suddenly, the lightning-bolt penetrated my mind — I’m not having to move out to go past these cars. I quickly moved over to the proper side of the road, and said, “I’m driving down the wrong side! I guess I’d better get over to the proper side of the road.”
Harry said something I’ll never forget: “I wondered when you would move over.” I said, “Why didn’t you say something?” and he said, “I didn’t think it was my place, since you were giving me a lift!”
The Bay Bridge Collapse
On 17 October 1989, at 5:04 pm, the Loma Prieta earthquake hit the San Francisco Bay area. Sixty-seven people died, most of them in Oakland when the upper deck of Interstate 880 collapsed, crushing many rush hour commuters in cars on the lower deck.
The upper deck of the San Francisco Bay Bridge collapsed (pictured). Interstate 80 connected San Francisco and Oakland across the bay. No one was killed in the initial collapse, and some cars that went over the edge landed safely on the lower deck. (In the picture, these drivers were moving from the right hand side of the picture to the left, so they just dropped down through the gap and landed on the lower deck.)
Tragically, due to a miscommunication by emergency workers, some cars were routed back onto the upper deck at Yerba Buena Island, going the opposite of the normal direction toward the collapsed section. One driver, at least, recognised the danger, stopped, and turned around. Someone in that car filmed the following, which was played on news broadcasts, and for many became the predominant lasting memory of the earthquake. (Warning: the following video includes a “watered-down” instance of taking the Lord’s name in vain, so some may prefer to turn the sound off.)
The woman speaking on the video is obviously stunned, but once she realises what is happening, and that people are driving over the edge, her response is the obvious and natural one: “We need to go help!” Sadly, the car that went over the edge was going the opposite direction of the cars that had just dropped down, and smashed into the collapsed section of bridge. The driver died, and the passenger was badly injured.
Is Silence Moral?
The woman who filmed that video was heavily criticised by many people for filming rather than warning people. Maybe she couldn’t have done anything to stop that car. Maybe someone with her was trying to do so. Maybe she didn’t know that more cars were coming until it was too late — there shouldn’t have been any cars coming, after all.
The specifics of that case aren’t important, except that it illustrates my main point: silence is immoral, if you are able to warn someone headed towards death. People may ignore your warnings, but your responsibility to warn of the danger is obvious. If you know the danger, you need to warn those who aren’t aware of it.
If someone is driving the wrong way around a roundabout, it certainly is “your place” to say something. Harry and I laughed about it later. The danger was minimal, because there wasn’t any traffic, but that doesn’t change the responsibility. Harry was being “too nice” — any reasonable person would want him to say something. In fact, his responsibility was greater because he was a passenger in the car — it was “his place”. I had invited him into a place where he would be expected to say something if I were acting dangerously.
Knowing Harry, I suspect he was trying to figure out a diplomatic way to say it, rather than actually wanting to neglect his duty. Diplomacy would have been so like him — but it’s hard to be diplomatic when your message essentially boils down to, “Stop being an idiot!” 🙂 It would have been better to just say it — my ego would have survived the blow.
Ambassadors — a Serious Responsibility
If we are ambassadors for Christ (II Corinthians 5:20), we have a very serious responsibility. Part of the message God has entrusted us to carry is a warning, and He holds us responsible to deliver the warning. Ezekiel 3:17-19 records God’s message to the prophet Ezekiel, and the principle of accountability is the same for those of us who are now ambassadors for Christ:
17 Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. 18 When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. 19 Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.
The Scriptures talk about this responsibility as a debt — “I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also” (Romans 1:14-15).
The Warning Part of the Gospel
If the need to give the Gospel is a debt, and part of the Gospel is a warning, then giving warnings is an obligation, a debt. Going back to last week, I posted that as ambassadors for Christ our message has three main components:
The need for reconciliation with God
His provision for reconciliation
His great desire for reconciliation
The first is, “The need for reconciliation with God.” You cannot be honest about that without it being a warning. Because of a person’s sin (the wrong that he does), his relationship with God is marred. This is where my “Ambassadors for Christ” series of posts touches on my sermon summaries. One of my posts on last Sunday’s sermon dealt with this extensively, and I wanted to wait to post on the ambassador’s responsibility to warn until I had dealt with that summary.
In part two, I talked about the command to “abhor” or detest evil. I gave five reasons to hate sin, and without taking the time to develop them again (see that post for the Scripture behind them), I want to just repeat the last three of those five reasons:
Because Sin is Self-Destructive.
Because it Makes God Angry with Us.
Because it Creates a Barrier Between Us and God.
We have to warn people that their sin has badly messed up their relationship with God. They are in serious trouble. They are headed around the roundabout the wrong way, driving towards a collapsed bridge section. Their sin is not only self-destructive, but it has come between them and God, to the point that the God who loves them is angry with them — and He is the Judge.
Often, the hardest person to warn is the person that is close to us. We love them, so we don’t want to upset them. These people, of course, are the ones we most need to warn. They’ve invited us into their lives as surely as I invited Harry into my car. We may need to find a charitable way to warn (my suggestion for Harry to say “Stop being an idiot!” probably isn’t a good plan :)), but saying nothing isn’t an option. Maybe something doesn’t seem quite right to them (like me going around a roundabout), but whether that is true or not, we can’t remain entirely silent.
Someone might say, “But people don’t want to hear about their sin and what comes of it.” In all probability, drivers on the Bay Bridge didn’t want to hear that they couldn’t get home by going over it, either — but the consequences of driving that way were drastic. The consequences of sin are eternal — as a friend of mine once said to someone who was considering spiritual things, “You’re dead a long time.” Just because someone doesn’t want to hear doesn’t necessarily mean they shouldn’t get a warning.
We would be more comfortable if our “ambassadors” message didn’t include the warning component. It’s so much easier to talk about God if we can portray Him as “Father Christmas in the Sky”, who dishes out good things right and left, and never has any expectations that would make people uncomfortable. Who would be offended by that? People will like us better if we don’t step on their toes, after all. Everyone likes to be liked. Maybe we should just tone down that “warning” part of it? If we do, probably more people will listen, after all.
If we take that approach, we are ambassadors that have “gone native”, adopted the thinking of the foreign nation, rather than of the Sovereign who sent us. We aren’t ambassadors for Christ at all, if we leave the warning out. We’re not giving the true Gospel of Christ. It isn’t “good news” (the meaning of the word “Gospel”) if people don’t even know about the problem it is solving.
How we give that warning is important. Someone who walks around with a sign that says “Repent!” may be giving a warning, but he is leaving out or obscuring the other two key points of our message, God’s provision for reconciliation and His desire for reconciliation. So we want to give the warning rightly, but whatever we do, we can’t leave it out.
Hell, Fire, and Brimstone?
Harry liked to pass out leaflets, and one of his favourite leaflets said this: “Life is Short; Death is Sure; Sin the Cause; Christ the Cure.” He may not have been great at wrong-way roundabout warnings, but he knew the most important warning to give. Sin brings death — but Christ provides the solution.
A few years ago, Harry died. That day, he and his wife had driven to Glasgow for a cousin’s funeral. On the way back, he told Lynn, “When I die, I hope Jon preaches hell, fire, and brimstone!” In the evening, he had a heart attack, and went home to be with the Lord.
I didn’t really preach a hell, fire, and brimstone message at his funeral. It wasn’t the time or the place for that. My time was limited, and I needed to talk about “Christ the Cure”. But I certainly did warn of hell, of sin’s eternal consequences, of the fact that life is short and death is sure. I trust that everyone there heard a warning of the dangers of sin, and of going through life, and ending life, without Christ.
A stereotypical hell, fire, and brimstone message is often long on the warning part of our message and short on the reconciliation part. I’ll be writing more about the reconciliation part. But make no mistake — an ambassador for Christ cannot afford to leave out the warning part. Life is short, death is sure. Sin is the cause of death, and it causes spiritual death as well, eternal punishment in the lake of fire. Hell, fire, and brimstone is real, and most of the people we know are driving towards a collapsed bridge that leads there.
People may not think that is a charitable message — but the charitable message on the Bay Bridge in October 1989 was “STOP! THE BRIDGE IS OUT!” That was true whether drivers wanted to hear it or not. It’s not charitable to give the message in a way they are likely to ignore — but the worst violation of charity is to neglect to give the message at all.
Continuing my sermon summary on Romans 12:9. Monday I posted part one, and Friday part two. This post is the last one on this verse.
Our text:
Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.
I talked of the three-fold instruction in this verse as three over-arching instructions, out of which flows all that follows. The first (central) arch is sincere love, love for God and love for fellow-man, flowing out of God’s love for us. The second arch was to abhor or hate evil, and the third arch is to Cleave to Good. If we love without dissimulation, hate evil, and hold to the good, everything else will fall into place. In this post, I’ll conclude with discussing the third arch.
Cleave to Good
We are to “cleave” to that which is good. The modern usage of the word “cleave” is to cut something in two, but the older meaning was to cling or hold to something, and that is what is in view here. The Greek word is kollao, from kolla, which means “glue”. Obviously, we can’t be literally “glued” to that which is good, but Paul uses figurative language to describe how closely we need to adhere to the good.
This builds on the lessons of verses one and two, where we saw that as a result of the renewing of our minds, and the transformation that results, we are able to prove (test and accept) the will of God. That will is good, acceptable, and perfect. This verse is talking about putting that into practice by adhering to those good things.
A few weeks ago, we went to Linlithgow Palace to watch a jousting exhibition. We showed our Historic Scotland membership cards to gain admittance, but they put wristbands on everyone so you could leave and return without any hassles. Unfortunately, the gentleman who put on my wristband got it twisted, and the adhesive stuck to my arm, pulling at the hair, which wasn’t very pleasant when I tried to remove it. I started to wonder if that wristband was going to become a permanent part of me.
I could easily take off my wristwatch by unfastening the clasp, but glue is another matter. Paul used the Greek verb derived from “glue”, and it seems particularly fitting to describe how closely we need to adhere to that which is good. He also used the present tense, which generally indicates continuous action. We need to be continually glued in to, adhering to, that which is good.
There is one aspect of this in the Greek text that doesn’t really come out in our English translation. This is another one of those commands in the passive voice, somewhat comparable to “be transformed” in verse two. This is implied by the very word (“glued”) that is used as well as the passive voice, and it matters.
We are not dependent on our own ability to hold to the good. That is a good thing, because that “old man”, the old sin nature, is still present, still tempting us, still turning our affections the wrong way. The Scriptures tell us we are held by the Lord (John 10:27-29), and that He is able to keep us from falling (Jude 24). We’re reminded that God is doing a work in us (Philippians 1:6), and that He is conforming us to the likeness of Christ (Romans 8:29).
That doesn’t mean we just sit back passively in this matter. This is an instruction for us to be “glued” to good. I Thessalonians 4:1 tells us to “abound more and more” in the good things we have been told to do. I Peter 3:10-11 tells us to “do good”.
So what does it mean to be “glued to good”, then? Is it something we do, or something God does? Perhaps Philippians 2:12-13 helps here:
Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
“Work out your salvation” doesn’t mean we work to earn it, but rather that we work to live out the proper result of the salvation we have received. That’s our responsibly — but the story doesn’t end there. “For it is God which worketh in you”. Our “work” is effective only because God is working in us.
This is why we are commanded to be “glued”, to cleave to that which is good. We cleave to the good, but the glue that really holds us there is God’s. It is His power that is changing us, reforming and transforming us, holding us, gluing us to all that is good.
Ultimately, then, as we look at this third “arch”, we find ourselves once again dependent on God, and that dependence is not misplaced, because we (once again) go back to the Cross of Christ. Romans 8 helps us here:
29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. 31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Verse 29 tells us that God has a plan that He is working out in our lives to change us to be like Christ. Paul goes on to explain that our confidence in this working of God goes right back to His love for us as demonstrated at the Cross. If God loved us enough to send His Son to die for us, He loves us enough to “glue us to good”. The Cross is our guarantee of a love that doesn’t get disgusted at our failure to love the good as we should, a love that doesn’t despair when we drift off course, a love that continually draws His children back.
And so we have three “overarching” instructions in Romans 12:9, three things out of which everything that follows flows. But when you look at the foundation, these “arches” are built on a rock: the love of God revealed to us at the Cross. It all comes back to God’s love. It all comes back to the Cross.
Without the Cross, the arches would fall, built on a foundation of sand, dependent on human effort that always ultimately fails. With the Cross, these great overarching principles of the Christian life stand strong, and we can trust God to work in us, as we learn to love sincerely, hate evil, and glue into good.
Continuing my sermon summary on Romans 12:9. Monday I posted part one, which could be read as a stand-alone piece, but if you haven’t read part one yet, I recommend doing so before reading this.
Our text:
Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.
I talked of this three-fold instruction in this verse as three over-arching instructions. The first (central) arch is sincere love, love for God and love for fellow man, flowing out of God’s love for us. The second and third arches are to Abhor Evil and Cleave to Good. If we love without dissimulation, hate evil, and hold to the good, everything else will fall into place. In this post, I’d like to talk about the second arch, Abhor Evil. In memory of my dad’s horrible tendency to pun, I’ll arbitrarily decide that it is the one on the left side, and since it deals with evil, call it the sinister arch. 😉
Abhor Evil
We are to “abhor” or hate the things that are evil. Again, “abhor” is not a word used very often anymore, but the idea is to consider something absolutely horrible, to detest or hate it.
It has often been said, “God loves the sinner, but hates the sin.” I can’t find that quote anywhere in Scripture, but certainly the two truths it contains are Biblical. The only problem I have with the statement is that sometimes it gives an impression that sin doesn’t really matter, because God loves the sinner, anyway. That’s not a fair picture of how much God hates sin.
God used the Greek word that means “evil” or “wicked”. One thing that I’ve found interesting in recent years is that you can tell someone that what they are doing is bad, you can even tell them it is sin, and they might not be offended, but you certainly can’t tell them it is evil or wicked without upsetting them. People might be ready to admit that they do some bad things, but they don’t like words that describe them as “really bad”. God used a word that puts sin in the “really bad” category. It is horrible, and He wants us to see it that way.
Why should we hate sin? I see at least five reasons in Scripture to detest evil:
Because it is Contrary to God’s Nature. “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (I John 1:5). If we love God, we will hate that which is diametrically opposed to Him. He is light, not darkness, and darkness has no place in HIm. To love His light is to hate the darkness that opposes Him.
Because God Hates Sin. “But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows” (Hebrews 1:8-9). God the Son hates iniquity (sin), and this meets with the approval of God the Father. Proverbs 6:16-19, Jeremiah 44:4, and Zechariah 8:17 are other examples of God hating evil.
Because Sin is Self-Destructive. Ezekiel 18:31 says, “Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” Sin leads to death (Romans 6:23), and the Scriptures are full of warnings of the natural consequences of sin. It is easy for us to see this self-destructive aspect of sin for things like drug addiction, driving while intoxicated, etc, but the principle applies to all sin. Eventually, it catches up with you. Things like pornography may seem harmless at the time, but it will damage your marriage, perhaps even keep you from getting married by twisting your entire attitude and personality, and may lead to horrible addictions and perversions.
Because it Makes God Angry with Us. “God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day” (Psalm 7:11). Isaiah 66:14 and Malachi 1:4 speak of God as indignant towards sinners. Here’s where we start to run into trouble with “God loves the sinner but hates the sin.” It’s a true statement, but it doesn’t give the whole picture — because God’s hatred for the sin impacts our relationship with Him in very real ways. It makes Him angry with us. We shouldn’t think of this as God throwing a temper fit, or losing self-control. If one of my kids wrongs one of the others, I may be quite angry about it. I am angry at the hurt done to my other child, and I am angry that they are self-destructively damaging their relationship with a sibling. It is an anger that flows out of my love and concern for my children, but it is still anger. Thus is God’s anger, and it is a compelling reason for us to hate sin — it angers God.
Because it Creates a Barrier Between Us and God. “Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear” (Isaiah 59:1-2). Our sin puts a barrier between us, so that the God who would delight in saving us, in helping us, will not do so. Psalm 5 goes even further: “The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the LORD will abhor the bloody and deceitful man” (verses 5 & 6). Sin horribly messes up our relationship with God, to the point that the God who loves us actually hates us at the same time because of what we are doing. The conflict is not in Him — we are the ones who are behaving in a bizarre, divided fashion, and His response of both love and hate reflects that. We don’t like to think about this. It’s much more pleasant to say, “God loves the sinner,” and that is true, but it is only part of the picture.
As you sit at your computer reading this today, you may look back over the last few days and say, “I’m hopeless.” The natural response of a Christian who isn’t perfect, who sins against a holy God, and who doesn’t hate evil the way God does, is horror, self-revulsion, and guilt. Even at our best, we fall far short of where we should be in our attitude towards our own sin, and the natural reaction is dismay.
That may be the natural reaction, but it isn’t the spiritual reaction. The spiritual reaction is to look again to the Cross of Christ. Repent and confess your sin, and then take God’s Word for it — He forgives. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9).
The spiritual response to our failure to abhor evil as we should is to remember God’s love! Romans 5:8 tells us that God loved us and sent His Son to die for us when we were still sinners, going our own way, rejecting God entirely. Does He love us any less than that now that we are trying, however imperfectly, to follow Him?
So our evil messes up our relationship with God? Where sin abounds, God’s grace abounds even more (Romans 5:20). When you fail to hate evil, remember God’s love.
Furthermore, God’s love provides the greatest evidence of just how evil sin is, just how much God hates it. God hates sin so much that He was willing to give His only Son to rescue us from sin. The greatest evidence of God’s hatred for sin is the Cross. The greatest evidence of God’s love for us is the Cross.
The Cross of Christ, God’s commendation of His love for us (Romans 5:8), is our greatest instructor when it comes to how we should view evil. The Cross teaches us of the horror of evil, it teaches of God’s hatred for it, and it teaches us to hate sin, too. It teaches us that wickedness is not invincible, despite our weakness, and that God has provided a solution. It teaches us not to despair at our sin, for the solution to our evil sin is found in God, and not us. It teaches us that God’s love saw our desperate evil, and has won anyway. It teaches us that, despite the horror of what we’ve done and the terror of incurring God’s anger, despite everything, God loves us with an infinite love.
The command to “Abhor Evil” should drive us back to the Cross of Christ, back to God’s love for us. God loves you! Remind yourself over and over of what that means, and “abhor that which is evil” follows. The foundation of this “arch” is the Gospel, the fact that God loves us. We can’t really understand or live this “arch” of detesting evil unless we lay the foundation of God’s love for us in Christ at the Cross.
God loves you. He sent His Son to die for you. Learn that, meditate on it, live it. God’s love is foundational. It isn’t just a neat catch-phrase. It is everything.
I talked of the three-fold instruction in this verse as three over-arching instructions, out of which flows all that follows. The first (central) arch is sincere love, love for God and love for fellow-man, flowing out of God’s love for us. The second arch was to abhor or hate evil, and the third arch is to Cleave to Good. If we love without dissimulation, hate evil, and hold to the good, everything else will fall into place. In this post, I’ll conclude with discussing the third arch.
Mind Renewers 