People are hurting. There is no way around this fact. People all around us are dealing with various degrees of disappointment and sorrow. How do we make sense of this in our lives? What words can we give our suffering friends to comfort them? Where can we look for hope in the midst of our despair?
The short answer to these questions is to focus our attention on God, however this might not satisfy us or our hurting friend if we do not already know why focusing on God gives comfort. We might ask, ‘what is there about God that makes thinking about Him and focusing our attention on Him a means of comfort.’
The answer to this question, the deeper and more effective answer, is found in the scripture’s description of God. We are told that God is our Father. This is a particular truth for those who trust Christ and a promised truth for those who will trust Christ. As our Father, God, who is perfect and holy in everyway, desires for us eternal joy and peace. He knows that this eternal joy and peace is found through perfect holiness. This is why we are commanded by Christ to be holy as our heavenly Father is holy. Through holiness we are guaranteed to find joy and peace.
This may seem insignificant and even trivial to some, but for the one who seriously contemplates this truth there is comfort in the midst of suffering. Of what truth am I speaking? Namely, that God, being a perfect father, knows that for most of us the only means to holiness is through discipline, and therefore, with perfect measure, He disciplines us.
This discipline can take many forms and have as its immediate cause various things. For our purposes we should let it suffice that whenever we suffer, whether because of our sin, the sin of others or the natural disappointments that are a part of life, we are being refined. The yield of this refinement, this suffering, this discipline, ultimately at God’s hands is “the peaceful fruit of righteousness” and the sharing of God’s holiness (Hebrews 12:10-11).
So, when you are looking for comfort in sorrow, when you are looking for comforting words for a friend in despair, it is, indeed, good to point your gaze to God and see Him specifically as your Father, who knows how to give good gifts to you and who knows how to bring you to perfect joy and peace for all eternity. Rejoice in His hand, which shapes you as a potter shapes his clay and know that he is shaping you to be a vessel of noble purpose and exquisite beauty. Take comfort in this as you were meant to.
Truth. The Church is or should be very concerned about truth. In life we most often make our decisions based on what we know or believe to be true. Without truth to guide us, we would soon become lost. Our lives would seem haphazard. Not many, I think, would disagree with this basic premise of life, and yet, the question of truth is often hotly debated. Nowhere less than in religious discussions. However, the Church sometimes seems to approach the idea of truth with less than expected zeal. In fact, the Church can often come across as unconcerned about the truth. Why do I say this?
Well, in Christian life truth is a very absolute thing. I’m not really sure how one can define truth as anything but absolute, but this seems to be the desire of some. Because truth is absolute, and the truth taught by the Church is often in direct contradiction to the truth taught by the world, the conflict between the Church and the world can be strained and even violent.
For this reason, Christians, sensing that this truth and their defense of it creates a rift between themselves and their neighbors, soften their defense of the truth and even set it aside as unimportant. They do this because they believe that only by doing so can they effectively win a person to Christ.
Unfortunately, when we soften or set aside the truth of God’s Word, i.e. that we are sinners born into condemnation, that we are, therefore, condemned to eternal death in hell and that the only remedy is justification before God through the redemption of our lost souls by the singular path of Christ’s blood shed on a cross; when we set this truth aside for the sake of evangelism, we destroy any hope of evangelism.
Christians must not apologize and hide the truth of God’s Word. Instead, Christians must defend it and not only defend it but promote it; take it as a weapon onto the battlefield for the souls of the lost. It is a harsh and sharp weapon. It is an offensive weapon. Yet, it is the means of piercing the soul so that the light of salvation through Jesus Christ can enlighten that soul and bring it into the Kingdom of God.
So, the next time you are tempted to ignore doctrinal error, to side step a discussion on theology, remember “truth is the seed of the new birth” and therefore must be known and defended at all cost from the point of upsetting your neighbor to the point of bringing persecution and death upon yourself.
Quote from Thomas Watson’s “Heaven Taken by Storm” pg 6
Life in the Church, as a part of the body of Christ can be perplexing. One such complexity is the topic of Church discipline. When do our efforts to confront people’s sins become Pharisaical or legalistic? When do our compassionate mercies become a danger to the church? I really think each situation is unique and thus requires a somewhat unique handling by church leaders and all of us as brothers and sisters in Christ.
However, there are some rules that govern our handling of sin in the Church. One such rule is found in 2 John. There we hear John warn his readers about “deceivers”, people who do not believe in the divinity and resurrection of Christ. John warns his readers to not follow these deceivers for to do so is to be one who does not have God.
But the warning goes deeper. Not only are we not to listen to deceivers, we are also not to receive them or greet them. In other words we are to refuse them fellowship with us. Another way to look at this is, if the church is infiltrated with a deceiver, the church is to confront and remove that deceiver. If the church fails to do this, John tells us the church is complicit in the deceiver’s sin. “…for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.” (1 John 10-11)
The principle here, which I think becomes a two part rule for dealing with sin in the church, is that sin must be confronted and the sinner disciplined
- If there is a threat that others in the church may fall into that sin by that person’s example or
- The lack of discipline is judged to be an endorsement of the sin.
Thomas Watson says that “connivance in a magistrate supports vice, and by not punishing offenders he adopts other men’s faults and makes them his own.” Now, if you are like me you need to look up the word connivance, and doing so proves beneficial. Dictionary.com defines the term three different ways, but the most helpful is “tacit encouragement or assent (without participation) to wrongdoing by another.” By tacit we mean “unvoiced” or “unspoken”.
You don’t have to say you approve of a person’s sins to be charged as approving them. Your actions or your lack of words may condemn you. Now, I will freely admit this can be a difficult thing to judge. If I do not correct my brother when he swears, is that tacit assent to his swearing as appropriate speech? Maybe or maybe not. Perhaps I understand where my brother is spiritually, and I am treating him graciously as he grows in his sanctification.
There are multiple ways to view this scenario. This is why I think the first part of the rule is helpful. Is there a threat that by “graciously” overlooking someone’s sin we are giving consent to that sin, and therefore, others, including myself may fall into it? If so, then we should prayerfully consider addressing the sinner directly, remembering that the approach will always vary some depending on the sin, the person’s receptiveness to correction and many other factors.
I recognize that this is an incomplete thought. I would love to hear your reactions and ideas too. Please feel free to leave a comment beneath the blog post.
