There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. —Soren Kierkegaard. "…truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity–it is simply true and that is the end of it" – Os Guinness, Time for Truth, pg.39. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” – Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
The Seventh Article of the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancyreadsas follows:
We affirm that inspiration was the work in which God by His Spirit, through human writers, gave us His Word. The origin of Scripture is divine. The mode of divine inspiration remains largely a mystery to us.
We deny that inspiration can be reduced to human insight, or to heightened states of consciousness of any kind.
Article seven is really an extension of article six. If all the parts of Scripture are of God, even down to the very words of Scripture, then article seven necessarily follows. However, there are three affirmations followed by a very specific denial.
Affirmation: Inspiration is the Spirit’s Work
In a brief and concise manner, the Council affirms the ancient phrase “opera trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa” by stating that inspiration is the work of God. However, they also affirm that this operation was accomplished through the Holy Spirit, which is consistent with the witness of Scripture. The text that is thelocus classicuson this issue is Peter’s first epistle wherein he says, “Men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (I Peter 1:21).
Affirmation: The Divine Origin of Scripture
It is always important to maintain that God is the source of Scripture. They are not of human origin, even though God employed human writers in the process of inspiration. However, the practical importance of this affirmation depends on where we are in history. For instance, the pendulum often swings between God as transcendent or immanent. That is to say, God is either wholly other, so completely distant from us that no communication can be established, or he is so immanent that His thought cannot be distinguished from our own. The former view is that of Karl Barth. For him, there is only a witness to God, but he never leaves anything of Himself behind, even His word. The latter is a description of Tillich who believed that God is the ground of all being.
In the 19thcentury, Warfield contended with the latter which found expression in Hegel’s pantheizing notion of all things. Warfield quickly discerned that the mark of his day was that all thought was conceived as the immanent work of God. Warfield also understood the implication. If all thought is special revelation, then there is no such thing as special revelation. For Warfield this didn’t mean giving up on the divine origine of Scripture, it meant focusing not on origin but mode.
Affirmation: The Mode of Scripture
What is mode when applied to thinking about the inspiration of Scripture? It basically deals with how God brought the inspired word about. In other words, it applies to the manner of God’s acting in inspiration. For the Council, the mode of inspiration was “largely a mystery.” Warfield affirmed the same early in his career. He called the mode inscrutable. However, by 1894 he believed it necessary to describe the mode because liberal scholars were identifying the mode as purely human. However, since we are unpacking the Council’s statement it seems wise to deal with Warfield’s mode in different article.
Denial: Inspiration is not…
Inspiration is not a heightened state of human consciousness or elevated insight. It is an immediate and direct work of the Spirit upon the human author and this work produces the exact product that God intends. This is important and has not always been considered with the care and faithfulness that it deserves. For example, W. G. T. Shedd, a great Edwardian scholar, believed that inspiration is only intellectual illumination. What is more, he went on to describe the affinity between thought and language. Thus, the Holy Spirit illuminated the intellect and language theory answered to produce the Scriptures. The Council is affirming not only the immediate work of the Spirit upon the authors but the immediacy of the Spirit’s work in the final product, the Scripture.
Jeffrey A Stivason(Ph.D. Westminster Theological Seminary) is pastor of Grace Reformed Presbyterian Church in Gibsonia, PA. He is also Professor of New Testament Studies at the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh, PA. Jeff is the Editorial Director of Ref21 and Place for Truth both online magazines of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals.
WE AFFIRM that God in His work of inspiration utilized the distinctive personalities and literary styles of the writers whom He had chosen and prepared.
WE DENY that God, in causing these writers to use the very words that He chose, overrode their personalities.
That God has inspired men to write and communicate His words to mankind is clear enough from Scripture (Exodus 4:12;2 Tim. 3:16). But how that happens has sometimes been obscured. Sadly, too many Christians think of the act of inspiration as God merely taking over an induvial, or possessing him, so that God, using the man as no more than a puppet, a tool of flesh to write words, can then through that man produce a final inspired document of Scripture. Almost like a man in a drug-induced state of ecstasy were the authors of Scripture. This is emphatically not what Biblical inspiration is. God is not a God of mindless manipulation.
Rather, God has always been a God of means and almost always uses individuals to accomplish His means. Think of Moses and the Exodus, Joshua and the conquering of Canaan, or you and I and the spread of the Gospel. God loves to use his people. And when it comes to giving his people his Covenant Word, He uses certain people and their distinct personalities – personalities, mind you, that God himself created, and through his providence, perfectly crafted to be the exact personality He wanted to write His word. Do you think anyone elsebutDavid – with all that David was and all that David had gone through – could have written Psalm 51?
And yet, even though David was the author of Psalm 51, he was not the sole author. God, working in and through David, made sure that everything David wrote was exactly what God intended. Therefore, God is also the author. Indeed, He is the primary author. God’s sovereign and providential work in disclosing Himself through David in no way negates nor diminish the very real thought, will, and care given by David when writing his Psalms. They are the Psalms of David; they are the Words of God. As Herman Bavinck puts the matter, “the correct view of inspiration apparently depends therefore on putting the primary author and the secondary authors in the right relationship to each other.”[1]
HereThe Chicago Statement of Biblical Inerrancygets the doctrine just right when it says that “we affirm that God in His work of inspiration utilized the distinctive personalities and literary styles of the writers whom He had chosen and prepared and that we deny that God, in causing these writers to use the very words that He chose, overrode their personalities.” Any honest reader of Scripture can easily discern that the way in which John wrote his Gospel narrative is radically different in style and tone and personality that how Mark or Luke wrote their Gospel narratives. Paul is wildly different than Peter, and James is not at all like Jude.
The word inspiration, from the Greektheopneustos(God-breathed) as used in2 Timothy 3:16denotes the idea of God “breathing out” His Word, albeit through certain human authors. B.B. Warfield used the image of musical instruments to describe how God inspired different men to write Scripture without overriding their distinct personalities. Just as a man my blow upon a trumpet to get one sound but later blow on a French Horn, or Tuba, to get a distinctively different sound, so too God – the source of Scripture – will breathe through different men to communicate exactly what He wants communicated.
Hence, Peter can write that “no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). Here, Peter is clear: prophecy originates from God. Or to make a tautology, God’s Word is a Word from God. Still, Peter can also say that it comes through men – men “carried along by the Holy Spirit.” Stephen Wellum puts the point clearly when he says that this is “more than the leading of the Spirit that occurs in ordinary providence; rather, it is an act of extraordinary divine agency, which involves a sovereign, constraining influence of the Spirit. However… this extraordinary action of the Spirit in and through the authors does not necessitate a dictation theory of inspiration, but it does assume a specific theology of the divine sovereignty-human freedom relationship. The words and texts the prophets spoke and wrote are from God and thus fully authoritative and true, but they are also their own words. A close look at the writings of the prophets confirms this point. There is no evidence that the prophet’s abilities and personalities disappear; each prophet freely writes in his own style, yet it is also God’s word. Scripture does not teach that if God is the author, then humans are not, or vice versa.”[2]
A distinction should be made just here. The product, that is, the document of written Scripture is inspired, not the man doing the writing. Moses, David, Peter and Paul were all fallen men and as such were men who sometimes erred. Paul had to confront Peter for his mistaken theology in Galatians 2.[3]Still, through these fallen and finite men, God breathed and the Spirit carried along in such a way that what they produced was both inspired and inerrant. The text, as it was written, had an objective stamp of divinity upon it (and as it is faithfully copied and translated, that same stamp of divinity presides).[4]
This aspect of inspiration that see’s both God and man in dual-authorship has come to be referred to asConcursus.It is the understanding that both God and man are at work in producing Scripture: God as the primary Actor, providentially superintending all that will be written, even down to every jot and tittle (Matt. 5:18), but also each human author as a secondary agent, retaining full agency and cognizance in his own writing. Can you not imagine David weeping and his tears falling and mixing in with the ink as he wrote Psalm 51? Is not Paul honest when he writes that he has “great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart” (Rom. 9:2) concerning the rejection of the Gospel by the Jews?
Here then is a full-orbed doctrine of inspiration which encompasses God’s extraordinary care over every word communicated to us, but doing so through ordinary men.
Stephen Unthank(MDiv, Capital Bible Seminary) serves at Greenbelt Baptist Church in Greenbelt, MD, just outside of Washington, DC. He lives in Maryland with his wife, Maricel and their two children, Ambrose and Lilou.
[1]Bavinck,Reformed Dogmatics,1:428; found in Joel R. Beeke, Paul M. Smalley,Reformed Systematic Theology: Revelation and God,vol 1 (Crossway, 2019), p. 327
[2]Stephen J. Wellum,Systematic Theology: From Canon to Concept,vol. 1 (B&H Academic, 2024), p. 292
[4]Preachers today who preach out of a good English translation can have confidence that they are preaching the Word of God.
Article IX of the Chicago Statement, with its one affirmation and one denial, reads as follows:
“We affirm that inspiration, though not conferring omniscience, guaranteed true and trustworthy utterance on all matters of which the biblical authors were moved to speak and write. We deny that the finitude or fallenness of these writers, by necessity or otherwise, introduced distortion or falsehood into God’s Word.”
This article affirms there are no errors to be found in scripture. This is not because the authors of scripture themselves were of such a sublime nature they could never error. No. Only God has the excellencies of divinity and the constancy of never being in error. God alone is immutable. There is no variation or shadow due to change with him. The reason there are no errors contained in scripture is because of what the scriptures are, not because of what men are.
In the peculiar task of speaking and writing the utterances of God, the biblical authors were moved by God to speak and write. They were not so moved in every endeavor of life, but they were so moved in producing the scriptures. When not uttering God’s words, they may have erred in writing a recipe or a private letter to an beloved uncle; but, by the power of divine inspiration, they did not error in writing scripture.
It is helpful to note how Article IX refers to omniscience. The Chicago Statement does not allow for a conferral of omniscience upon the biblical authors in the divine act of inspiration. This disavowal is helpful for understanding what inspiration is. It is a supernatural act. Let me explain.
The New Testament word for inspiration istheopnuestos(a transliteration from the Greek), best translated into English as “breathed out by God” or “inspired by God” (2 Tim. 3:16). Thus, it is an act so obviously supernatural someone might be tempted to conclude it is akin to conferring omniscience. But omniscience is an incommunicable attribute, an attribute God cannot share with the creature. Biblical authors were not omniscient, but they were inspired. As it says in 2 Peter 1:21, they were “carried along by the Holy Spirit” to write down the precise words God wanted to use to convey his revelation. The authors were not left to their own natural abilities or to their own Christian graces. A supernatural work of God called inspiration was necessary to guarantee the scriptures would be without error.
Article X:“WE AFFIRM that inspiration, strictly speaking, applies only to the autographic text of Scripture, which in the providence of God can be ascertained from available manuscripts with great accuracy. We further affirm that copies and translations of Scripture are the Word of God to the extent that they faithfully represent the original. WE DENY that any essential element of the Christian faith is affected by the absence of the autographs. We further deny that this absence renders the assertion of Biblical inerrancy invalid or irrelevant.”
We do not possess the original manuscripts of Scripture. We do not have an autographed copy of Isaiah or Jeremiah from the prophets themselves, the original Gospel according to Matthew is gone, and none of Paul’s original epistles remain. What we have are copies, translations, and more copies. Does this mean that we can’t trust the copies and translations that we do possess? According toThe Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, not only can we trust that the ancient copies are trustworthy, but so too are our modern copies and translations.
Affirming the Inspiration of the Original Autographs and the Accuracy of the Copies
William Shakespeare lived from 1562-1616. During his lifetime as a writer, he wrote 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and at least two narrative poems. He is, without a doubt, the most famous playwright of the English-speaking language, even to this very day. And absolutely none of his original manuscripts survive.
It is not at all unusual for original manuscripts of published works to be lost. The older the work, the more likely it is that the original manuscript (the autograph copy) has been lost or has perished with age. Most of the time, however, no one calls into question the validity of various copies. For example, if one were to go into a bookstore and purchase a copy of Shakespeare’sPlays, even though the original manuscripts no longer exist, hardly anyone is going to dispute the authorship of the plays, the validity of their wording, or their genuineness. There are, however, some that will do all three of those things—some argue Shakespeare didn’t even exist, that significant discrepancies must exist between the autographs and the republications, and that the plays may not even be rightly attributed to the phantom known as Shakespeare.
FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS volume 23, number 24, June 13, 2024
Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lusts, James 1:14.
Darryl Strawberry signed his first professional baseball contract in 1980, after graduating from high school. By 1983 he was in the Major Leagues and helped the New York Mets win the World Series in 1986. One day early in his rookie year with the Mets a teammate offered him cocaine saying, “Welcome to the Big Leagues!” Soon he was hooked on cocaine, amphetamines, and alcohol. He was divorced three times, had countless women, and was arrested for illegal drug possession and domestic abuse. He says that he became a Christian in 1991 and there were times of progress in his Christian life, followed by serious setbacks into sinful living. Finally, he was sentenced in 2002 to eighteen months in prison after his sixth parole violation. Since that time, however, Strawberry has lived in gospel holiness, traveling around the country, telling people of Jesus. He will be in the Philadelphia area in the next few weeks and speak of God’s work of grace in saving him and keeping him from his former addictions, urging others to repent and believe in Jesus as the only Savior of sinners.
Let’s assume that Strawberry was truly converted in 1991. If so, then why the constant failure to overcome his sinful patterns, and why has he been able the last several years to have victory over these sins? And what about you—do you still battle certain sins? Do you sometimes find yourself going back to sinful thoughts, speech, or patterns of living which remind you of your former days as a non-Christian? Why do you still battle sin and what should you do about it? What is God’s means of sanctification?
I mentioned last week that until you come to grips with your own culpability and quit blaming God or someone else for your sinful behavior, you will not progress in gospel holiness. This is absolutely fundamental. Okay, let’s assume you are there, that you admit your sin is your own fault, then what’s next? We are given three vivid metaphors in James 1:14-15 that speak powerfully to the issue. First, James says that we are carried away by our own lust. This alludes to a predator taking away its prey, like a lion hauling off a young antelope that wandered too far from the herd. Second, he says that we are enticed by our own lust. The Greek word for enticed has the idea of a fishing lure. Think largemouth bass which sees something silver “swimming by” and goes after it, eventually latching onto a silver spoon with treble hooks, resulting in its capture, eventually ending up in a frying pan. And third, James alludes to seduction, then the act itself, followed by horrific consequences of fornication—“. . . and when lust is conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.” The consequences refer to death, death of one’s marriage, destruction to one’s family, and all manner of sordid things which can fall upon those succumbing to the seduction and deception of sin. “A man who commits adultery is a fool. He who does so destroys himself, “ (Proverbs 6:32).
What goes on in the life of the believer who falls into grievous sin? Why do you still battle the same sins? Why do you find yourself succumbing time and again to the same temptation, bringing great hardship on you and your family? We need to understand the root of our problem is indwelling sin, sometimes called the flesh (Romans 7:18-20, Galatians 5:19ff). Even as believers we still have a depraved desire, a lurid longing, a powerful propensity to sin. You cannot help it. It is simply there. This root of sin is growing in the soil of lust. The Greek word for lust is sometimes used positively in the New Testament (Jesus “lusted” to eat the Passover with His disciples, Luke 22:15), but generally it is pejorative (among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, Ephesians 2:3). This inward lust is a deformed desire, a dominant dalliance, a perverted passion. It’s on the inside. Why does a man, who was just intimate with his wife, when seeing another woman, immediately want to be with her? The answer is indwelling sin, rooted in the soil of lust. If the root is indwelling sin, then the tree trunk is temptation, and this comes from the outside. Jesus, as a man, was tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1-11, Hebrews 4:15), but He did not battle indwelling sin like us, for He is God incarnate. Temptation comes in multitudinous ways, very often in things for which we long, namely our idols. And the fruit from the tree, that which comes from the root of indwelling sin, in the soil of our lusts, gaining strength in the tree trunk of temptation, are actual sins. Darryl Strawberry’s fall back into sin as a believer was due to indwelling sin, rooted in the lust of sordid, inordinate desire, fueled by the sight of cocaine or another woman. And James tells us that the result of sin is death—not simply physical death (Deuteronomy 30:19ff, Romans 6:21-23), but also eternal death (Revelation 20:13-15), what Jesus calls the second death. This physical death also reveals itself in the death of potential, the destruction of families. The news is replete with pastors, politicians, or celebrities falling into destructive sin which bring a myriad of soul destroying, career killing consequences. This, unfortunately, happens everyday.
What then are we to do? Allow me to make this as simple as possible. Let’s number these four components. Number one is the new heart you have in Jesus (Ezekiel 36:26, John 3:5-7, 1 Peter 1:3), the ability you now have to hate your sin and to love and obey God. This is what the Bible calls regeneration, being born again. Number two is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:2). You are indwelt by the Spirit of Jesus if you are a Christian (Ezekiel 36:27, Isaiah 44:3, Acts 2:38, Romans 8:2-11). To apply this Holy Spirit power, however, you must be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18), you must not grieve or quench the Spirit (Ephesians 4:30, 1 Thessalonians 5:17). You must abide in Christ (John 15:1-5). You must be constantly relying on Jesus, constantly relenting or surrendering your own will, constantly retaining and meditating on God’s word, constantly requesting, learning to pray about everything, and constantly rejoicing in who God is and what He has done for you.
Number three is indwelling sin, living in a body of lust (Romans 6:12-13). This is the natural propensity we all have to follow our own lusts, a desire to do what we want to do, regardless of the consequences. And number four is temptation from the world and the devil (Ephesians 6:10-12). The devil is always seeking to seduce us away from sincere devotion to Jesus. So why do we fall into sin? Number three and four will overpower number one every time. Simply put—your new heart of regeneration, as glorious as it is, is no match for indwelling sin and temptation. That’s why mere accountability groups will not keep you from sin. That’s why sheer discipline will not always work. That’s why the fear of getting caught, of suffering the consequences of sinful behavior, will not always work. That’s why thinking with gratitude on all God has done for you in Christ will not always stand up against indwelling sin, lust, and temptation. I am not saying accountability groups, discipline, fearing the consequences of sin, or dwelling on God’s goodness are not helpful. By all means you should practice these regularly. I am saying, however, that these will not work all the time. They are insufficient. Thankfully, you have a greater, more glorious power available to you. Numbers one and two—the new heart and the holiness of Jesus indwelling you by the Spirit—will overcome numbers three and four every time. As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord (by faith), so walk in Him (live in gospel holiness) in Him (Colossians 2:6).
I know I sound like a broken record, but you must run to Jesus for His holiness. Here’s what we should do—when faced with the real power of lust, indwelling sin, and specific temptation, we should cry out to Jesus saying, “Jesus, I cannot stand in my own self- will and self-discipline against this. I need, this very moment, your holiness (1 Corinthians 1:30) for You alone are my wisdom from God, my righteousness, my sanctification, and my redemption.” When you cry out to God, when you abide in Jesus, when you keep your bucket submerged under the river of living water, filled with the blood of Jesus, then you will stand against sin and temptation. Without this you will surely fail. So, run daily to Jesus, actually crying out to Him, asking Him for His holiness, and He promises to give it to you.
Oh, one last thing. You will never reach a state of sinless perfection in this life. You will always battle sin until the day when you close your eyes in death and your righteous soul will then be made perfect (Hebrews 12:23). So, do not give up and do not fall into despair. Jesus, who loves you and gave His life as a ransom for your life will bring you safely into His eternal kingdom.
To help us understand what this concept means, it might be helpful for us to outline 4 things that saving grace is NOT and 4 things that saving grace IS.
Saving grace is a word that you’ve likely heard a few times. There was even a television show on TNT named Saving Grace. It was about a lady with an angel on her shoulder, and it somehow squeezed out three seasons. I suppose you could say that its saving grace was the strong performance of lead actress Holly Hunter.
Of course, “saving grace” would imply that there were elements of the show that some saw as off-putting. Perhaps some potential viewers were turned off by its graphic content. Others believed that the plot was somehow both inconsistent and highly predictable. That’s why we’d say it needed a “saving grace.”
That’s how we typically use the word. Like if I wanted to make a bit of a swipe at my friend Gary but then started to feel bad, I might say something like this: “Gary sure smells like moldy French cheese, but his saving grace is that he has a drawing personality and a wonderful sense of humor.” The phrase means a redeeming quality that rescues the whole enterprise. The saving grace is that little thing that keeps you from being discarded onto the ash heap.
The Bible itself talks about saving grace, but it means something quite different. To help us understand what this concept means, it might be helpful for us to outline 4 things that saving grace is NOT and 4 things that saving grace IS.
There are quite a few things that saving grace is NOT. It is not the name of a baseball team, for one. But some concepts tend to hang out in the same circles as saving grace, and on occasion, they might wear that big nose and fake glasses to trick us into thinking it is saving grace. Yet, our saving grace here is that when you get up close, you realize the mustache that is attached to the glasses is so ridiculous it cannot be the real thing. Likewise, here are four things that saving grace is NOT.
I am indebted to Dietrich Bonhoeffer for the language here. Bonhoeffer saw many of his people running like lemmings after Hitler and all of his wickedness. In his book, The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer discussed the concept of cheap grace. He described it this way:
Cheap grace is preaching forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, and absolution without personal confession. It is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, and grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.
Simon the Magician thought that grace was something cheap enough to be purchased. Though he might have placed a steep economic price upon it, had he been able to package it, the idea that it can be bought and sold cheapens the concept. Grace cannot be purchased. That is why Peter rebuked him sharply.
We get confused here because we often discuss grace as a free gift. But free doesn’t mean cheap. Just ask the guy who freely gave a kidney so that his buddy could have a few more years of life.
2. Saving Grace Is Not a License to Sin
Paul had to deal with this one directly. If we preach and proclaim grace, this question will always rear its ugly head. In Romans 6:1-2 Paul said, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” He had to ask these questions because some silly person thought that saving grace was like getting a passport to the land of debauchery.
I can understand why some might get a little confused here when a hero like Martin Luther said something like this:
If you are a preacher of mercy, do not preach an imaginary but true mercy. If the mercy is true, you must bear the truth, not an imaginary sin. God does not save those who are only imaginary sinners. Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong [or sin boldly], but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world. We will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a place where justice resides. We, however, says Peter (2. Peter 3:13), are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where justice will reign. It suffices that through God’s glory, we have recognized the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. No sin can separate us from Him, even if we were to kill or commit adultery thousands of times each day. Do you think such an exalted Lamb paid merely a small price with a meager sacrifice for our sins? Pray hard for you are quite a sinner.[1]
Telling someone that committing adultery or killing someone a thousand times a day and still not being separated from mercy might lend itself to believing that grace gives you a license to do what you want. But that’s actually not Luther’s point. His point was to exalt the power of saving grace. As we will see later, rather than inspiring sin, grasping a paragraph like this will do the opposite—at least if you truly receive saving grace.
When I was in middle school, my basketball coach decided to make me the starting point guard. He was new to the area but had played softball with my dad a little that summer. I guess a somewhat known commodity was better than the unknowns. I was pretty fast and much better at baseball—he probably saw me playing catch on the sidelines and figured my athleticism carried across sports. Truth be told, making me the starting point guard didn’t have much to do with my efforts. One might say it was entirely based upon grace (or maybe ignorance, but that would hurt my illustration).
I was the starting point guard for about a week. It’s not that I was awful. I just wasn’t starting caliber. And being in that position got me so excited and nervous that I started making many unforced errors—the very thing a point guard cannot do. “Grace” was suddenly thrown out the door, and my merit was all that was left. I took my rightful place on the bench.
Some people think that saving grace is similar. It’s as if grace gets us through the door, but it’s now up to us to finish this thing. Whatever “this thing” happens to be. The problem is that this was exactly the idea of the Galatians, who had been bewitched by false doctrine. Where are they now attempting to gain salvation through human effort? “No,” Paul told them, “It’s grace from beginning to end.” It will never not be grace. Grace, thankfully, isn’t temporary.
1. Saving Grace Is Costly
Now that we’ve seen what saving grace is NOT, we are prepared to understand better what saving grace is.
As opposed to being cheap, saving grace is actually quite costly. Yes, it comes to us as a free gift, but it is eternally costly. It costs the shed blood of Jesus Christ. There is nothing more valuable. We get to return to Bonhoeffer here:
Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it, a man will go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy, and the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him…It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “ye were bought at a price,” and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life but delivered him up for us.
Yes, indeed. It may not cost us anything, but it cost God “everything.”
That is the little thing missing in that Luther quote we shared earlier. Luther himself would not deny this concept. In fact, it was his very point. Rather than being something that gives a license to sin, grace is actually transformative. The gospel changes us from the inside out.
You might liken saving grace to being attacked by a bear. I know that’s a weird comparison, but hear me out. If you’re attacked by a bear, it will fundamentally change you. In fact, it might change you so profoundly that you are no more. The rest of your days will be somehow connected to that bear attack. Now imagine that this bear stays with you every day of your waking life, and each time you get a little out of order, he gives you a side-eye.
That is what saving grace does, except its motivator isn’t sharp claws but rather deep love. It stays with you and impacts every bit of your life. You’re never the same when you encounter saving grace.
4. Saving Grace Is Eternal
Even if this were temporary, it’d be pretty great news. But there would always be that lingering feeling that, somehow, we’d mess it up. Maybe we return to that bear who is side-eyeing us and threatening us with painful expulsion when we get out of line. But grace isn’t like that. We didn’t do anything to deserve it, and we don’t do anything to undeserve it. Jesus said, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.” (John 10:28-29)
You can’t lose this because it has never been up to you. I don’t understand all these intricacies, and that’s okay. I don’t think grace is something we’re supposed to dissect; rather, it’s a beautiful and wonderful reality that we get to swim in…for all eternity.
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Cheap grace is worthless. It tries to rob you of your peace and rest in Christ. Christians always need to be on the lookout for cheap grace and stay far away from it. Here are two kinds of cheap grace that pretend to be the costly grace God gives us in Christ:
1. Grace without Christ
Some people think that God saves us by his grace in Christ, but we must be obedient to get and keep God’s grace fully. There have been various words used over the years to describe this kind of cheap grace, including legalism, prevenient grace, works-righteousness, and covenant faithfulness. You can always recognize this kind of cheap grace by this one test: If someone is telling you that there is something you need to do to add to Jesus’ completed work on your behalf—that Jesus’ finished work is not enough to save you—then you need to run away from this false teaching.
Many Christians are told that this kind of grace is true grace; the people who teach cheap grace may be ignorant, thinking that conditional grace is God’s grace—but it isn’t. There are many verses in the Bible that affirm the truth that salvation comes from outside of us through the work of Christ, not from anything we do (for some examples, see Rom. 5:1; 6–8; 15–17; Rom. 8:1–11; 2 Cor. 3:4–5; 5:17; Eph. 2:8–9; Titus 3:4–7). The works James is talking about in his letter are the fruits of the Holy Spirit’s work in the lives of believers (James 2:14–26). These works do nothing to save a person; rather, they are evidence of a person’s adoption into God’s family in Christ.
2. Grace without the Spirit
Some people think that, because believers are saved by God’s grace in Christ, they can sin whenever they feel like it because God will forgive them anyway. A fancy word for this is antinomianism. This kind of cheap grace does not take into account the Holy Spirit’s work of sanctification in the lives of all Christians (John 16:7–15). All believers bear the fruit of the Spirit because they are branches attached to the vine of Christ (John 15:4–5; Gal. 5:22–23; Col. 1:10).
Followers of Christ must continually fight against sin, but that doesn’t mean they will do a perfect job of it in this present world. In fact, they can’t do a perfect job, no matter how hard they try. It has been said, “If you’re still livin’, you’re still sinnin’.” Christians will fail to keep all of God’s commands in this life because, although they are declared righteous in Christ, they are still sinners. The Spirit convicts believers of their sin and leads them to repentance (John 16:8; Rom. 8:14). Believers will experience true sorrow over their sin because they have been bought with a price and have the Spirit living in them (Rom. 7:14–25).
One of the signs that a believer is growing in holiness is the increasing awareness of one’s sin along with the corresponding desire to stay away from all ungodliness.
Christians show gratitude to and love for God by keeping his commandments (John 14:15; Heb. 13:15; 1 John 2:3; 5:3). This obedience is a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving the believer offers up to God; it is never a means to keep—or earn—God’s grace. Just as sometimes children disobey their parents and are disciplined accordingly, God disciplines us because we are his beloved children in Christ, and he will use our failures to teach us through the work of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.
So, what is costly grace?
Costly grace is God’s unmerited favor because of Christ’s unfathomable sacrifice for all who trust in him (John 3:16; 1 Cor. 6:20). Because we are sinners, there is nothing we can do to earn the favor of a holy God (Rom. 3:23). God sent his Son to be born in the flesh because there was no other way we could be saved. Jesus did all the work to earn God’s favor on our behalf, so that we could have peace with God and eternal life (Rom. 5:1).
By God’s grace, Christ’s righteousness is counted to us and our sin is counted to Christ, who gave his precious blood as the perfect sacrifice once for all (Rom. 5:12–21; Heb. 7:27; 10:14; 1 Pet. 1:18–19). This grace comes through faith in Christ alone, which is also God’s gift (Eph. 2:8–9). God’s costly grace is amazing, because even though we are guilty before him based on our own insufficient works, God declares us righteous in Christ.
Don’t let the devil rob you of your joy in Christ, for Jesus has already won the victory.
The devil’s attempts to make you doubt your salvation will never change the fact that you are declared righteous in Christ alone through faith alone by God’s grace alone—regardless of what the future holds. Nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ (Rom. 8:35–39). Cling to your Savior and be at peace.
The Christ has conquered death! Hallelujah. Death is dead in the death of the living one. He has wrested the keys of Hades from the Enemy’s cold hand and now rules over death. Satan, Sin & Death ‘died’ on the Cross and Jesus won. Satan was defeated in the way described in Zechariah 3.1-4: the true accusations of the accuser are made to be false because Jesus stood in our place on the cross. Therefore, Satan, Sin & Death are defeated. Christ has won.
A few weeks ago, I taught a session that I called ‘Understanding the Cross’ at my church. We went through some of what sin is and what crucifixion was like and the Old Testament sacrificial system. In the second half we looked at passages of the Bible to find out what happened theologically on or because of the Cross.
I think it’s common that we emphasise one or two of these, but all 12 happened. It is true that the Bible emphasises some more than others and that these are not all of equal weight in our understanding, but together they form a tapestry.
Sometimes we can be so cross (!) about people who minimise penal substitution (that Jesus stood in the place of our punishment on the cross) that we make it the only thing the Bible talks about. Substitution is a main theme, but there are others.
Sometimes these are called ‘theories’ of atonement as though they are competing with one another. That isn’t the right way of thinking, as they’re all mentioned in the Bible. Instead they are facets of the atonement and the question is about how they fit together.
1. Substitution.
Isaiah 53.6, 1 Peter 2.24, 2 Corinthians 5.21
Jesus stands in our place, so that in the ‘Great Exchange’ as Martin Luther called it, we gain his righteousness while he takes our sin. This is our cross, our rightful death, and he takes it instead of us.
Therefore, I don’t have to die, even though sin causes death.
2. Propitiation
Romans 3.35, 1 John 4.10
This is often lumped with the former but it’s a distinctly different thing. It means the turning aside of wrath. Jesus’ death turns aside the wrath of God so that his anger is not levelled at those who trust in Jesus’ death.
Therefore, God’s wrath is not levelled against me, even though he is just and I deserve it.
3. Expiation
1 John 1.7, Leviticus 16
Jesus cleanses our filth so that our sin is taken far away from us. Think of the second goat on the Day of Atonement, who is sent out into the wilderness to be eaten by goat demons. He is identified with the people’s sin and then cast out the camp with their uncleaness on him. Jesus cleanses us not just from the penalty of sin but from its pollution, sending it far away.
Therefore, even though sin made me filthy, I have been cleaned.
Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.
And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
—John 8:1-11
There have been countless times I’ve judged others.
There have also been several times I’ve been loud and vocal about it, often talking negative behind people’s backs. When I first joined August Burns Red, I would blatantly talk bad about my band mates when they weren’t around. When you live in a van with the same guys for months at a time, you butt heads. I would often say we “came from the other side of the tracks,” and that’s why problems arose. Each of us were raised differently, we lived diverse lives, and we viewed life, politics, and situations from polar opposite standpoints. Because of the proximity to one another, it was messy, and I was judgmental. Because I was young (and young in my faith), I didn’t see I was the one who had most of the issues. I wasn’t in a healthy place mentally or spiritually so I would degrade those around me to feel better.
It’s easy to casts stones at others without taking an inward look at ourselves. With this passage of scripture, the men who caught this woman in the very act get to take a “holier than thou” approach. It’s easy to compare yourself to scoundrels and never look inward. Often we can rationalize our own sin and behavior by saying “Well, I’m not as bad as (fill in the blank).” Except Jesus points out something clearly here:
“Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Human beings have a tendency to do this all the time. We gang up on those we don’t understand, those who may not look like us, talk like us, act like us, feel the same for “causes,” or fit the same lifestyle. Whether publically or internally we degrade them, belittle them, condemn them and compare them to our not-so moral behavior. As Jesus points out, “You’re all guilty and sin has no degree of difference.”
We gang up on those we don’t understand, those who may not look like us, talk like us, act like us, feel the same for “causes,” or fit the same lifestyle.
We each need to look inside and ask, am I not equal to this person? Do I not struggle? Have I not committed sins that if others found out I’d be ashamed?
Once we see ourselves in this light it humbles us, and we’re able to give grace towards those stumbling and struggling. Think about how many people would feel compassion as opposed to condemnation if we took a little more time before reacting to a situation? If we remembered our own sin and how God views it no differently? I think we’d have more people dropping their stones and embracing one another, seeing the struggles we each face and knowing we’re no different.
Christ is calling us to put our stones down. We’re all scoundrels desperately in need of grace. Let’s act accordingly.
APPLICATION:
1. Write the names of one to three people you’ve judged, gossiped about, or slandered. Then write what you said and where your sin was by doing so.
2. Now comes the difficult part. Pray to God for the willingness to call them and make amends. Then actually do it! Explain what you did, how it was wrong and ask forgiveness. Remember Jesus’s words in Matthew 5:23-24, “So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” So go and be reconciled to them.
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These two books are also available on Amazon. All proceeds go directly to Pastor Hines:
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We subscribe to the Westminster Standards as our doctrinal statement. It consists of the following documents:
The Westminster Confession of Faith The Westminster Larger Catechism The Westminster Shorter Catechism
We also believe that Christian Worship is to be regulated and defined by God’s Word, the Bible.
Our worship services are designed to please and honor the Triune God of the Bible. We place Scripture reading and the preaching of the word of God at the center of worship along with Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. These are God’s gifts to His church and ought to always be at the center of Christian worship. We are a congregation that loves to sing God’s praises, recite His Word back to Him, and actively engage in hearing and learning from God’s Word.
We embrace and promote a comprehensive Christian world and life view.
There is no area of life which is not under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It is to God and His law which all people, including governments and civil rulers, will answer. The Word of God embraces and informs the way we view marriage, the family, children, education, politics, worship, law, government, war, the church, missions, evangelism, and worship. In the world today there is a battle of opposing worldviews. There are basically only two positions: God’s Word and man’s ideas. We stand positively for Biblical truth and negatively against man’s ideas which are opposed to Biblical truth.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only hope for mankind.
Because all men fall short of obeying God’s law, all men everywhere are in need of divine grace and salvation from God. This salvation is found only in the Lord Jesus Christ who died for sinners, was buried, rose again, and is alive today seated at God the Father’s right hand.
We Worship God Together as Families.
We offer nursery during the morning worship service for newborns and infants but encourage people to keep as many of their children as they can with them for morning worship. The audio of the service is in the nursery via speakers. There is also a crying room with a video screen and audio of the sermon. We offer Sunday school classes for all ages, but worship together as families. We do not offer “children’s” church.
All who profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and are members of an evangelical church are cordially invited to participate with us in the Lord’s Supper.
As he did with his discussion of the Rapture (cf. 4:18 where he used the same word rendered here “encourage”), Paul concluded his discussion of the Day of the Lord by exhorting the Thessalonians to encourage one another and build up one another. Based on the truth he had given them, they were to reassure the anxious and fearful that they would not experience the Day of the Lord. His concluding phrase, just as you also are doing, affirms that they were already committed to encouragement. Ever the faithful pastor, passionately concerned for his people, Paul wanted them to “excel still more” (4:1).
One of two possible destinies awaits every member of the human race. Those who stubbornly remain in spiritual darkness will ultimately “be cast out into the outer darkness” of eternal hell (Matt. 8:12; cf. 22:13; 25:30). But those who through faith in Jesus Christ come to the light of salvation (Acts 13:47; cf. John 8:12; 9:5; 11:9; 12:46) will “share in the inheritance of the saints in Light” (Col. 1:12). They will live forever in God’s glorious presence, where “there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever” (Rev. 22:5).[1]
11 Paul rounds off this section, as he had a previous one (4:18), with an exhortation to “encourage one another.” Phillips renders, “So go on cheering and strengthening each other with thoughts like these.” The tense of the imperatives is the present continuous, and it conveys the thought that this is something that they should do habitually. The verb translated “encourage” has the idea of strengthening by one’s words and thus means a little more than “exhort” (see further on 3:2).
The second imperative brings before us the thought that these great truths about the Parousia are not simply to enable us to hold our ground. The Christian faith is never static, and the New Testament envisages the Christian way as a continual growth. Those who are in Christ are people who are growing in spiritual stature and in the knowledge and love of God. Paul envisages the use of the great truths about the second coming, the day of the Lord, the character of Christians as sons of that Day and sons of the light, the necessity for watching, for understanding that God has called us not unto wrath but unto salvation, and this at the cost of the death of his Son, and the other matters to which he has been referring—all as a means of promoting growth. The Thessalonians are to build each other up. It should perhaps be added that Paul is very fond of this idea of the building up of Christians. The word he uses is properly applicable to such matters as building houses, but Paul habitually uses it metaphorically, of the building up of Christians in the faith.
He looks to the Thessalonians to accomplish this themselves, under the guidance of the Spirit. He uses two different expressions, “one another” and “each other,” but they do not differ greatly in meaning. Together they emphasize the mutual responsibility of believers for one another and the kind of service they can render one another. His concluding expression, “just as in fact you are doing,” shows us that what he enjoins is no airy idealism. He knows the way in which the Thessalonians were assisting one another, and he commends them for it. But he urges them to go forward on this way. Christians may never relax on the grounds that they have made sufficient progress.[2]
11 With a strong “therefore” (= “for this reason”) and two imperatives, followed by an affirmation, Paul now brings this series of affirmations and warnings to their conclusion. The first imperative, “encourage one another,” is the otherwise ambiguous word noted earlier in 2:12 (see n. 106), which he has already used to bring the preceding matter to its conclusion (4:18). As in the preceding instance there is scarcely any ambiguity here, since “appeal” or “exhort” is unlikely in this context. Thus, as before, they are urged to “encourage one another.” This is followed immediately with “build each other up,” a verb that will appear much less frequently in Paul’s subsequent letters, but whose metaphorical sense has become common stock in English on the basis of Paul’s use of it in 1 Corinthians.
What is striking in this case is Paul’s concluding affirmation, “just as in fact you are doing.” This affirmation also indicates the considerable difference between what has been addressed in this passage and the new information they have received in the preceding one. Both passages are intended to encourage; but in the former the believers themselves are to do the encouraging with Paul’s words that precede (in 4:13–17). Here they are to continue to do what Paul affirms has been their regular habit. And even though he surely intends his own words to be a part of it, his immediate concern is for them to continue to do for one another what has been their ongoing habit. Paul’s preceding words will serve only as part of the package, intended as they are primarily to remove any misunderstanding or anxiety with regard to “the day of the Lord.”
In the later church the concerns that Paul addresses here have often fallen along the wayside, as it were, except for the occasional eschatologically focused groups whose singular passion has to do with the coming of the end. Paul’s concern lies elsewhere. Even the metaphor of “the thief in the night” does not have to do with believers, but with unbelievers. His obvious concern regarding believers is not to frighten them into watchfulness, but to remind them of the need to be living in such a way as to be constantly “prepared” for that day. Thus the major part of the passage is neither explanation nor exhortation but affirmation. The exhortation that does appear calls for constant preparedness, which has to do not with living “uptightly,” as it were, but uprightly, constantly “wearing” the armor of “faith, hope, and love.” Nonetheless, the major concern is affirmation, that they (and we) have been “appointed” to “receive salvation,” and thus must constantly live in hope, even as they (we) live in faith and love. And “hope” is not wishfulness regarding the future; it is certainty based on Christ’s resurrection (“so that we may live together with him”).[3]
11. Paul’s words about the parousia come to a close with an exhortation to help one another (cf. 4:18). Therefore (dio) means ‘on account of the things laid down in the preceding passage’; it is probable that everything from 4:13 onwards is included. The concept of edification (building up) is one that Paul uses often. The verb oikodomeō is not uncommon in the New Testament in its usual sense of building (e.g. Matt. 7:24, 26). Jesus used it of building his church (Matt. 16:18), and it is applied to the growth of the church (Acts 9:31). But in Paul’s hands both the verb and the cognate nouns are in frequent use in the sense ‘edify’, and this in both his early and later writings. It perhaps reaches its climax with the thought of believers being built up into a temple of the Holy Spirit (cf. 1 Cor. 3:9–17, Eph. 2:21–22).
Paul rounds off the section with a tactful just as in fact you are doing. He is always ready to give credit where credit is due. His purpose here is to exhort and encourage the brothers in the right way, not to rebuke them.[4]
Conclusion: a community of mutual support (5:11)
Paul uses the same verb parakaleō here as he has done in 4:18. It was a true instinct, however, which led some English translations (e.g. rsv) to render it ‘comfort’ in 4:18, where the context is consolation for the bereaved, and ‘encourage’ in 5:11, where the context is faint-heartedness in anticipation of the Parousia.
The world can be a tough and unfriendly place, as we all know to our cost. It is easy to get hurt by it. In addition, bereavement can be a very painful experience. We are also prone to fear when we think of Christ’s coming to judge. These emotions can tear us apart. We can become dispirited and depressed. But God means his church to be a community of mutual support. ‘Comfort one another’, Paul writes (4:18, rsv); encourage one another, and build each other up (5:11). All three are, of course, expressions of that yet more basic command to love each other (4:9). Moreover, the word ‘one another’ or ‘each other’ (allēloi) emphasizes the reciprocity of Christian care. We are not to leave it to an élite of professional comforters or counsellors. These have an important role to fulfil, of course, but supporting, caring, encouraging and comforting are ministries which belong to all members of the Body of Christ. They were already being exercised in Thessalonica. Paul was able to add to his call for mutual love the acknowledgment that ‘in fact, you do love all the brothers throughout Macedonia’ (4:10), and similarly to his call for mutual encouragement and upbuilding he added the clause just as in fact you are doing (5:11). No community could call itself Christian if it is not characterized by reciprocal love. Yet equally no community is such a paradise of love that its members do not need to hear Paul urging them ‘to do so more and more’ (4:10).
How, then, is this fundamental ministry of comfort, encouragement and upbuilding to be exercised? Doubtless in many ways, ranging from the simplicities of a smile, a hug or a squeeze of the hand to the costliness of patient listening, sympathy and friendship. Yet here in 1 Thessalonians we need to come back to Paul’s emphasis on ‘these words’ (4:18). True, the Thessalonians’ problem of anxiety in the face of bereavement and judgment was a personal and pastoral one. But the solution Paul gave them was theological. The true pastor is always a good theologian, and what makes a pastoral counsellor ‘Christian’ is his or her skilled application of the Word of God.
Looking back over this chapter, which doctrine is it which Paul applies to the Thessalonians’ need? He refers to many, but one stands out. It is not just that Christ is coming. That fact can cause anxiety rather than reassurance. No, it is the further truth that the Christ who is coming to us is the very same Christ who died for us and rose again. In both sections of our text Paul emphasizes that Christ’s cross, resurrection and Parousia must be held together, and that their ultimate objective is that we may live with him. ‘We believe that Jesus died and rose again … and that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him’ (4:14). Again, ‘He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep [i.e. when he comes], we may live together with him’ (5:10). The foundation of Christian faith and hope, indeed the essence of the good news, is that Jesus died and rose in order to bring us into union with him, and that when he comes he will take us to be with him for ever. Our coming King is none other than our crucified and risen Saviour. We therefore have absolutely nothing to fear. On the contrary, we may be certain that nothing (neither death, nor bereavement, nor judgment) can separate us from him who died to bring us to himself. Therefore comfort, encourage and upbuild one another with these words![5]
Ver. 11. Wherefore comfort and edify one another.—
Comfort and edification:—
I. Comfort implies—1. The presence of discomfort, and the duty of mutual support under trial. Men are troubled—(1) By sin. We must comfort by restoring such in the spirit of meekness, by pointing them to the Saviour. (2) By infirmities. Here we must comfort by bearing one another’s burdens with sympathy and help. (3) Affliction. When we can do no more, we can console with a few simple words. “A word spoken in season,” &c. 2. Owning our relationship with others. There is very deep comfort afforded to the solitary when we make them feel that they are not alone—e.g., in Christian testimony before an ungodly world; in work for the Master. 3. Reminding people of what they must expect from the world on the one hand, and of Christ’s helpfulness on the other (John 15:17). 4. Bringing before others the real grounds of comfort. (1) Present acceptance with God. (2) Future approval and reward.
II. Edification. 1. Presupposes a foundation—Christ Jesus. 2. Consists in—(1) Christian conversation. “Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together” (Eph. 4:29). (2) Mutual prayer. “If two of you shall agree,” &c. (3) Unity of design. Conclusion: To fit yourselves for this work. 1. Search the Scriptures, which are full of words of comfort and edification. 2. Read Christian biographies. 3. Beware of Pharisaism. (Bp. Villiers.)
The power of comfort:—So have I seen the sun kiss the frozen earth, which was bound up with the images of death and the colder breath of the north; and then the waters break forth from their enclosures, and melt with joy, and run in useful channels; and the flies do rise again from their little graves in walls, and dance awhile in the air, to tell that there is joy within, and that the great mother of creatures will open the stock of her new refreshment, become useful to mankind, and sing praises to her Redeemer. So is the heart of a sorrowful man under the discourses of a wise comforter. He breaks from the despairs of the grave, and the fetters of chains and sorrow; he blesses God, and he blesses thee, and he feels his life returning; for to be miserable is death, but nothing is life but to be comforted. And God is pleased with no music from below so much as in the thanksgiving song of relieved widows, of supported orphans, of rejoicing and comforted persons. (Jeremy Taylor.)
The power to comfort a test of religion:—Shortly before his death, being visited by a clergyman whose features, as well as language, were more lugubrious than consoling, Hood looked up at him compassionately, and said, “My dear sir, I’m afraid that your religion doesn’t agree with you.” (W. Davenport Adams.) Edification is one of the metaphorical words which have passed into the language of Christianity from the lips of our Lord. The foundation and progress of the Christian life is likened by Him to the building of a house (Matt. 7:24; cf. Luke 6:1; 8; Col. 1:23; 1 Pet. 5:10), and the parable of the improvident builder (Luke 14:28). Christ said, “I will edify My Church” (Matt. 14:18). Thus the Christian Church and the Christian soul are alike compared to a building or temple. The building will not be finished out until Christ comes. Those who by sympathy, word, or deed, assist the growth of Christian wisdom, feeling, or life, are conceived of as builders, helping others or themselves to supply some part for the construction of the spiritual edifice, and are said to edify (1 Cor. 7:1; 14:3, 4; Col. 2:7). (Bp. Alexander.)
Edification the aim of Christian speech:—When Handel’s oratorio of the Messiah had won the admiration of many of the great, Lord Kinnoul took occasion to pay him some compliments on the noble entertainment he had given the town. “My lord,” said the composer, “I should be sorry if I only entertained them: I wish to make them better.” It is to be feared that many speechmakers at public meetings could not say as much; and yet how dare any of us waste the time of our fellow immortals in mere amusing talk! If we have nothing to speak to edification, how much better to hold our tongue. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Communion of saints:—This forms an article of the Christian faith; but the profession of a truth and the experience or practice of it are widely different things.
I. What this communion is. 1. Saints are those who have been convinced of sin and saved by Christ, and are now living under the sanctifying influence of the Holy Ghost. 2. Their communion is a union of heart with Christ and one another. This is confined to no Church, age, people, or place. If grace sanctify some poor heathen five thousand miles away, and any poor sinner amongst ourselves, let them meet, and there will be a communion of feeling and interests between them. This communion has its type in the walk to Emmaus. The topics are—(1) Themselves—their joys, griefs, failures, triumphs, fears, hopes. (2) Their Lord—His condescension, goodness, love, truth. (3) Christ’s kingdom and doctrine—how most effectually they may further the one and adorn the other. (4) Their heritage—in its future and all glorious perfection.
II. Its advantages. 1. Comfort. The followers of Christ, so far from being exempt from trial, are often most troubled; but by communion they comfort themselves together. When one member suffers, all suffer. 2. Edification. Sometimes it is humbling, sometimes encouraging or consoling; but it is always edifying to commune with believers. Such an interchange of thought, feeling, and affection, produces often a friendship as intimate and endearing as that which subsisted between Jonathan and David. In conclusion, I would recommend—1. Religious intercourse. (1) There is an intercourse which seems to be religious, but is far from being so. Many talk about religion without talking religion itself. (2) Many professors are wanting in Christian openness and candour. How freely worldlings communicate their ideas to each other. Should Christians be less communicative? 2. Devout retirement. Without this the life and power of religion cannot be maintained, much less communion. (W. Mudge, B.A.)
Christian comfort:—Luther, at Wittenberg, discerning a very melancholy man, whom formerly he well knew, said unto him, “Ah! human creature, what doest thou? Hast thou nothing else in hand but to think on thy sins, on death, and on damnation? Turn thine eyes quickly away, and look hither to this man Christ, of whom it is written, ‘He was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered, died, buried, the third day arose from the dead, and ascended up into heaven.’ Wherefore dost thou think all this was done? Verily, it was that thou shouldst comfort thyself against death and sin; therefore, forbear, be not afraid, neither do thou faint, for truly thou hast no cause; for Christ suffered death for thee, and prevailed for thy comfort and defence, and for that cause He sitteth at the right hand of His Father to deliver thee. Therefore, whosoever thou art that art possessed with such heavy thoughts, know for certain that the same is a work and devising of the devil; for God hath sent His Son into the world, not to affright, but to comfort sinners. From hence these and the like sentences are often expressed in the Scriptures: ‘Rejoice; be joyful in the Lord.’ ‘Be not afraid.’ ‘Be not discouraged.’ ‘Be of good comfort: I have overcome the world.’ ” (Luther’s Table Talk.)[6]
11. The relation between 5:10 and 11 is a close parallel to that between 4:17 and 18. Just as in chapter 4 the clause, “And so shall we always be with the Lord” was followed by “Therefore encourage one another with these words,” so here in chapter 5 the clause “In order that … we may live in fellowship with him” is followed by Therefore encourage one another and build up one the other, as in fact you are doing.
That last expression, “as in fact you are doing” has been explained in connection with 4:10. By instructing one another and by encouraging one another with the comfort which is found in the preceding paragraph (such comfort as is contained in assurances like “You are not in darkness,” “You are all sons of day,” “For God did not appoint us for wrath but for the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ … in order that we may live in fellowship with him”), believers at Thessalonica will be doing very valuable personal work: building up one the other; for the church and also the individual believer is God’s edifice, God’s temple, 1 Cor. 6:19.[7]
It was a Sunday skit that changed lives. The main character was a secretary busily organizing her calendar. The actor portraying God was trying to get the woman’s attention, yet He was ignored. Well, God was persistent, so the secretary finally said she’d pencil him in. After the skit, Larnelle Harris sang “I Miss My Time with You.” It’s a song God used to remind people to have a daily quiet time to pray and study His word. How about you, friend? God wants to spend time with you.
But is God just ‘penciled in’ to your schedule and easily erased? As Larnelle sang,
“My efforts have no meaning when God’s presence isn’t there. God will provide the power, if I take time to pray.”
We have prayed it hundreds of times….. “Give us THIS DAY our daily bread.” Notice the Bible doesn’t say, Give us today our WEEKLY bread or Give us today our YEARLY bread.
God wants us to trust him one day at a time. We don’t need to be concerned about tomorrow until tomorrow. You don’t need to be concerned about next week until next week. To Be Healthy, Focus on Today
This means we don’t have to stress about all the future steps necessary to make us safe, strong and secure. We just need to focus on what we need to do for and with today. We can focus on succeeding one day at a time.
Jesus said, “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today” (Matthew 6:34 NLT).
Easier said than done, right? We are “culturalized” into worrying more because we want more. We seem to never be satisfied, never secure. What really matters is not what we want, but what God wants for us. Rest assured he will provide.
Are you trusting God?
Why do you think God wants you to take it one day at a time?
Make a list of all your concerns related to your life journey. Now trim the list down to only those things you need to deal with today. See how your list shrinks. Share your concerns, and talk to God about them one day at a time.
Jesus teaches us to pray that God would give us daily bread. Obviously Jesus was not telling His disciples to pray only for bread. But bread was a staple in the diet of the Jews, and had been so for many years. Furthermore, bread was a powerful symbol of God’s provision for His people in the Old Testament.
We remember how God cared for the Israelites when they were in the wilderness after their exodus from Egypt. Life in the wilderness was hard, and soon the people began to complain that it would be better to be back in Egypt, where they had wonderful food to eat. In response to these complaints, God promised to “rain bread from heaven” (Exodus 16:4).
The next morning, when the dew lifted, there remained behind on the ground “a small round substance, as fine as frost”. It was like white coriander seed, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey? (v. 14 & 31). When God miraculously fed His people from heaven, he did so by giving them bread.
We too will receive our daily bread, if only we will pray, trust and be thankful. God will provide, one day at a time. Worry not about tomorrow, but focus on each day, one day at a time.
By John Grant Used by Permission John Grant is a former Florida State Senator and is a practicing attorney
Romans 12:18-20 In this week’s study, we learn that being a peacemaker also means being willing to trust God to establish justice and mete out punishments and rewards hereafter.
THEME
Returning Good for Evil
As we continue our study of what it means to “live at peace with everyone,” I want to examine verse 20, which develops a contrast with the thought of taking vengeance into our own hands. “On the contrary,” it says,
If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.
The thrust of this verse is clear enough. We are to do good even to those who do evil to us. This is the positive way in which we are to work toward peace or be peacemakers. Moreover, it is a third step in an obvious progression. First, we are to forebear doing evil, not retaliating for wrongs done. Second, we are to do good instead of doing evil. Third, we are to do good even to our enemies.
The difficult part of this is the last line which, as Leon Morris notes in a classic understatement, is “a metaphorical expression whose meaning is not obvious.”1 What does it mean to “heap burning coals” on our enemy’s head? And why should we want to?
Charles Hodge suggests three possible interpretations:
1. Increasing the enemy’s guilt and thus his eventual punishment. This is the oldest and probably the most widely received interpretation of the metaphor. But this is hardly the thrust of this passage, not to mention that it is also a revolting idea. It amounts to using good as a weapon. That is, “Be good to your enemy, because in the end your good will harm him more than if you were mean.” It is hard to imagine Jesus or even a nice worldly person seriously saying that.
2. Kindness will cause your enemy to become guilty and feel shame. This is not much better. To be sure, shame might lead to repentance and thus eventually to salvation. But initially it is pain itself that we would be trying to inflict, and this hardly sits well with the idea of doing good to one’s enemies or blessing those who curse us, which Paul has expounded just a few verses earlier.
3. Doing good to one’s enemy is the best means of subduing him or winning him over. Hodge calls this the simplest and natural meaning, saying, “To heap coals of fire on anyone is a punishment which no one can bear; he must yield to it. Kindness is no less effectual; the most malignant enemy cannot always withstand it. The true and Christian method, therefore, to subdue an enemy is to “overcome evil with good.”2 This is where the next verse takes us, of course. For the end of the matter is that evil is to be overcome by good, not good by evil or even evil by evil. Hodge says, “Nothing is so powerful as goodness…. Men whose minds can withstand argument, and whose hearts rebel against threats, are not proof against the persuasive influence of unfeigned love.”3
And isn’t that exactly how the Lord Jesus Christ subdued us to Himself? No one was ever reviled so much or as unjustly as Jesus. Yet, as Peter wrote,
When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls (1 Peter 2:23-25).
It was by His conduct in suffering and before His enemies that Jesus won us, and it is by His death and the power of His resurrection that He enables us to live like Him.
1Leon Morris, The Epistle to the Romans (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, and Leicester, England: InterVarsity, 1988), 454.
2Charles Hodge, A Commentary on Romans (Edinburgh and Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1972), 402. Original edition 1935.
3Ibid., 404.
Study Questions
How does verse 20 contrast with verse 19?
What three interpretations for verse 20 does Charles Hodge suggest?
Which one did Jesus exemplify in drawing us to Himself? How do you know?
Application
Further Study: Read 2 Kings 6:18-23. How did Elisha show kindness to his enemies? How did the bands from Aram respond to Elisha’s kindness? Why do you think Elisha’s enemy quit attacking Israel’s territory? How does this story offer a good example of Romans 12:20 being lived out?
Key Point: We are to do good even to those who do evil to us. This is the positive way in which we are to work toward peace or be peacemakers.
For Further Study: Download for free and listen to Richard Phillips’ message, “Grace and Peace to You.” (Discount will be applied at checkout.)
Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God, Because praise is pleasant and beautiful. (Psalm 147:1)
Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever, For wisdom and power belong to Him. He changes the times and the seasons; He raises up kings and deposes them. He gives wisdom to the wise And knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, And light dwells with Him. (Daniel 2:20–22)
O God, You are my God; Earnestly I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My body longs for You, In a dry and weary land Where there is no water. I have seen You in the sanctuary And beheld Your power and Your glory. Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips will praise You. So I will bless You as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods, And my mouth will praise You with joyful lips. When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You through the watches of the night. Because You have been my help, I will rejoice in the shadow of Your wings. My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me. (Psalm 63:1–8)
The Lord lives! Blessed be my Rock! Exalted be God, the Rock of my salvation! (2 Samuel 22:47; Psalm 18:46)
Pause to express your thoughts of praise and worship.
Confession
O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger Or chasten me in Your wrath. Be merciful to me, Lord, for I am weak; O Lord, heal me, for my bones are in distress. My soul also is greatly troubled; But You, O Lord, how long? (Psalm 6:1–3)
Woe to me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts. (Isaiah 6:5)
There is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good And never sins. (Ecclesiastes 7:20)
Truly I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel. (Joshua 7:20)
If I claim to be without sin, I deceive myself, and the truth is not in me. If I confess my sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive me my sins and purify me from all unrighteousness. If I claim I have not sinned, I make Him a liar and His word is not in me. (1 John 1:8–10)
Ask the Spirit to search your heart and reveal any areas of unconfessed sin. Acknowledge these to the Lord and thank Him for His forgiveness.
I will sing praises to the Lord And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name. For His anger lasts only a moment, But His favor is for a lifetime; Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning. (Psalm 30:4–5)
Renewal
Lord, renew me by Your Spirit as I offer these prayers to You:
May I love the Lord my God, obey His voice, and hold fast to Him. For the Lord is my life and the length of my days. (Deuteronomy 30:20)
May I be holy to You, for You the Lord are holy, and You have set me apart to be Your own. (Leviticus 20:26)
I have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. Therefore, may I put away all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. (1 Peter 1:23; 2:1)
Since I call on the Father who judges each man’s work impartially, may I conduct myself in fear during the time of my sojourn on earth. (1 Peter 1:17)
Pause to add your own prayers for personal renewal.
Petition
Father, using Your word as a guide, I offer You my prayers concerning these practical exhortations.
May the God of my Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give me a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the full knowledge of Him, and may the eyes of my heart be enlightened, in order that I may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the incomparable greatness of His power toward us who believe. God’s power is according to the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. (Ephesians 1:17–21)
May I rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for me in Christ Jesus. May I examine all things, hold fast to the good, and abstain from every form of evil. (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18, 21–22)
I will consider it all joy whenever I fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of my faith produces endurance. And I will let endurance finish its work, so that I may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing. If I lack wisdom, may I ask of God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to me. (James 1:2–5)
May I be steadfast, immovable, abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that my labor in the Lord is not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:58)
May I be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power as I put on the full armor of God, so that I will be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. (Ephesians 6:10–11)
May I prepare my mind for action and be self-controlled, setting my hope fully on the grace to be brought to me at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As an obedient child, may I not conform myself to the former lusts I had when I lived in ignorance, but as He who called me is holy, so may I be holy in all my conduct, because it is written: “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:13–16)
May I be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let my requests be known to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard my heart and my mind in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6–7)
Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good report—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—may I think about such things. (Philippians 4:8)
Pause here to express any additional personal requests, especially concerning faithfulness as a steward:Of time Of talents Of treasure Of truth Of relationships
My activities for this day Special concerns
Intercession
Lord, I now prepare my heart for intercessory prayer for government.
We should offer petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings on behalf of all men, for kings and all those who are in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and reverence. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:1–4)
In the spirit of this passage, I pray for:Spiritual revival Local government State government National government Current events and concerns
Affirmation
Feed my mind and heart, O Lord, as I affirm these truths from Your word concerning the Scriptures:
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16–17)
The word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 4:12–13)
Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path. (Psalm 119:105)
Like Ezra, I want to set my heart to study the word of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach it to others. (Ezra 7:10)
I delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within my heart. (Psalm 40:8)
Pause to reflect upon these biblical affirmations.
Thanksgiving
For who You are and for what You have done, accept my thanks, O Lord:
The Lord is great and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols, But the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before Him; Strength and joy are in His place. I will ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. I will ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name And worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. (1 Chronicles 16:25–29)
Through Jesus, I will continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. (Hebrews 13:15)
God is my refuge and strength, An ever-present help in trouble. (Psalm 46:1)
My heart rejoices in the Lord; My horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth boasts over my enemies, For I delight in Your salvation. There is no one holy like the Lord; There is no one besides You; Nor is there any Rock like our God. (1 Samuel 2:1–2)
Pause to offer your own expressions of thanksgiving.
Closing Prayer
The Lord will keep me from all evil; He will preserve my soul. The Lord will watch over my coming and going From this time forth and forever. (Psalm 121:7–8)
The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you And be gracious to you; The Lord turn His face toward you And give you peace. (Numbers 6:24–26)
The God of hope will fill me with all joy and peace as I trust in Him, so that I may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13)
Boa, K. (1993). Handbook to prayer: praying scripture back to God. Atlanta: Trinity House.
MATTHEW HENRY’S “METHOD FOR PRAYER”
Bewail your False Security, Fretfulness, and Impatience
Confession 2.9 | ESV
Our security and unmindfulness of the changes we are liable to in this world.
I have put far from me the day of disaster; Amos 6:3(ESV) and in my prosperity have said, “I shall never be moved,” Psalm 30:6(ESV) as if tomorrow will be like this day, great beyond measure. Isaiah 56:12(ESV)
I have encouraged my soul to relax, to eat and drink and be merry, as if I had goods laid up for many years, when perhaps this night my soul may be required of me. Luke 12:19-20(ESV)
I have been ready to set my hope on the uncertainty of riches, more than on the living God; 1 Timothy 6:17(ESV) to say to the gold, “You are my hope,” and to the fine gold, “You are my confidence.” Job 31:24(ESV)
Our fretfulness and impatience and murmuring under our afflictions, our inordinate dejection and distrust of God and his providence.
When you have disciplined me, and I was disciplined, I have been like an untrained calf; Jeremiah 31:18(ESV) and though my own folly has brought my way to ruin, yet my heart has raged against the LORD; Proverbs 19:3(ESV) and thus, in my distress I have become yet more faithless to the LORD. 2 Chronicles 28:22(ESV)
I have either despised the LORD’s discipline or been weary of his reproof; Proverbs 3:11(ESV) and if I faint in the day of adversity, my strength is small. Proverbs 24:10(ESV)
I have said in my alarm, “I am cut off from your sight”; Psalm 31:22(ESV) and, “The LORD has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me”; Isaiah 49:14(ESV) as if God would never again be favorable, Psalm 77:7(ESV) as if he had forgotten to be gracious and had in anger shut up his compassion. This has been my infirmity. Psalm 77:9-10(ESV)
•Because of all You have done for me, I present my body to You as a living sacrifice for this day. I want to be transformed by the renewing of my mind, affirming that Your will for me is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1–2)
ADORATION AND THANKSGIVING
•Offer a brief word of praise to God for one or more of His attributes (e.g., love and compassion, grace, mercy, holiness, goodness, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, truthfulness, unchanging character, eternality) and/or works (e.g., creation, care, redemption, loving purposes, second coming). •Thank Him for the good things in your life.
EXAMINATION
•Ask the Spirit to search your heart and reveal any areas of unconfessed sin. Acknowledge these to the Lord and thank Him for His forgiveness. (Psalm 139:23–24)
MY IDENTITY IN CHRIST
•“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.” (Galatians 2:20)
*I have forgiveness from the penalty of sin because Christ died for me. (Romans 5:8; 1 Corinthians 15:3) *I have freedom from the power of sin because I died with Christ. (Colossians 2:11; 1 Peter 2:24) *I have fulfillment for this day because Christ lives in me. (Philippians 1:20–21) *By faith, I will allow Christ to manifest His life through me. (2 Corinthians 2:14)
FILLING OF THE SPIRIT
•Ask the Spirit to control and fill you for this day. •I want to be filled with the Spirit. (Ephesians 5:18) When I walk by the Spirit, I will not carry out the desire of the flesh. (Galatians 5:16) If I live by the Spirit, I will also walk by the Spirit. (Galatians 5:25)
FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT
•Pray on the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. (Galatians 5:22–23) •“Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Corinthians 13:4–7)
PURPOSE OF MY LIFE
•I want to love the Lord my God with all my heart, and with all my soul, and with all my mind, and I want to love my neighbor as myself. (Matthew 22:37, 39) My purpose is to love God completely, love self correctly, and love others compassionately. •I will seek first Your kingdom and Your righteousness. (Matthew 6:33) •I have been called to follow Christ and to be a fisher of men. (Matthew 4:19) •I will be a witness to those who do not know Him and participate in the Great Commission to go and make disciples. (Matthew 28:19–20; Acts 1:8) •I want to glorify the Father by bearing much fruit, and so prove to be Christ’s disciple. (John 15:8)
CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE DAY
•I will trust in the Lord with all my heart, and not lean on my own understanding. In all my ways I will acknowledge Him, and He will make my paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5–6) •“God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28; also see 8:29) I acknowledge that You are in control of all things in my life, and that You have my best interests at heart. Because of this I will trust and obey You today. •Review and commit the events of this day into the hands of God.
PROTECTION IN THE WARFARE
Against the World: Renew
•I will set my mind on the things of the Spirit. (Romans 8:5) •Since I have been raised up with Christ, I will keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. I will set my mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. (Colossians 3:1–2; also see 3:3–4 and Hebrews 12:1–2) •I will be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving I will let my requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard my heart and my mind in Christ Jesus. Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, I will let my mind dwell on these things. (Philippians 4:6–8; also see 4:9)
Against the Flesh: Reckon
•I know that my old self was crucified with Christ, so that I am no longer a slave to sin, for he who has died is freed from sin. I will reckon myself as dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. I will not present the members of my body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but I will present myself to God as one alive from the dead, and my members as instruments of righteousness to God. (Romans 6:6–7, 11, 13)
Against the Devil: Resist
•As I submit myself to God and resist the devil, he will flee from me. (James 4:7) •I will be of sober spirit and on the alert. My adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But I will resist him, firm in my faith. (1 Peter 5:8–9) •I will take up the full armor of God, that I may be able to resist and stand firm. I put on the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness; I put on my feet the preparation of the gospel of peace; and I take up the shield of faith with which I will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one. I take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. With all prayer and petition I will pray at all times in the Spirit and be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints. (Ephesians 6:13–18)
THE COMING OF CHRIST AND MY FUTURE WITH HIM
•Your kingdom come, Your will be done. (Matthew 6:10) •You have said, “I am coming quickly.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. (Revelation 22:20) •I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to me. (Romans 8:18) •I will not lose heart, but though my outer man is decaying, yet my inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for me an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while I look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16–18) •My citizenship is in heaven, from which also I eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. (Philippians 3:20)
(Also consider 2 Timothy 4:8; Hebrews 11:1, 6; 2 Peter 3:11–12; 1 John 2:28; 3:2–3.)
Boa, K. (1993). Handbook to prayer: praying scripture back to God. Atlanta: Trinity House.
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