Epistle for October 2, 2022

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
2 Timothy 1:1-14
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This is the second of St. Paul’s preserved letters to Timothy, his young protege in ministry.  He clearly establishes his credentials as an apostle, not according to his own choice but according to the will of God and the promise of the life which is in Christ Jesus.

His fondness for Timothy is clear — he calls Timothy his beloved child and wishes the very best for his “son in the faith”:

to Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Interestingly, Paul claims that he serves God just as his forefathers did, with a pure conscience. This is significant because Paul is establishing his continuity with the Jewish traditions and Hebrew Scriptures of his heritage.  He is suggesting that the Christian revelation is in no way a departure from the Old Testament revelation.

Paul’s reference to his own heritage is also a prelude to his discussion of Timothy’s religious heritage.  He tells Timothy that he prays for him, and remembers his tears — perhaps when they were parted, or perhaps when Timothy came to Christ?  Paul is also reminding himself — and Timothy — of the faith of Timothy’s grandmother Lois and mother Eunice.

We know from Acts 16:1 that Timothy was likely from Lystra in the region of Galatia (in modern-day Turkey).  Even more, we know that his mother was Jewish and his father was Greek.  Very likely his mother and grandmother, whom Paul mentions, had converted to Christianity.

Although his mother and grandmother may have had an impact on his spiritual development, we know that he had not been circumcised as a Jew, no doubt because of his Gentile father.  Paul taught that circumcision was not required of Christians, but Timothy did submit to circumcision in order to quell the criticism of Jews in the region.  Timothy also was an extremely useful messenger and helper in Paul’s ministry.

One of the difficulties of reading someone else’s mail — which we do every time we read an epistle in the New Testament — is that we may not be aware of some of the unspoken assumptions that the original reader is aware of.  In this instance, Paul seems to be striving to encourage Timothy in his ministry.

We might deduce, from Paul’s choice of words, that Timothy is a little shy and reticent in carrying out his ministry assertively.  Paul tells him to:

stir up the gift of God which is in you…

Paul reminds Timothy that he himself has laid hands on him and prayed.

He admonishes Timothy not to be afraid, or ashamed:

For God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.  Therefore don’t be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner…

By the same token, Paul doesn’t soft pedal or sugar-coat the risks of ministry:

endure hardship for the Good News according to the power of God…

And Paul reminds Timothy what it means that Paul laid hands on him and prayed.  He has been saved and has been called to ministry with a holy calling. Paul takes this opportunity to remind Timothy of the central doctrines of the Gospel:

• Salvation by grace — not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ.
• The centrality of Christ’s life, death and resurrection — revealed by the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the Good News. 

Paul reiterates that this is the message he was appointed to share as a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. Again, he highlights his unique calling — though he himself is a Jew by birth and heritage, and was highly committed to his Jewish faith prior to his conversion, he is convinced that he has been set aside by God to fulfill the Great Commission to all the world, Jews and Gentiles alike.

In a line that almost seems an afterthought, he alludes to his long litany of hardships for the sake of the Gospel, and also his current incarceration in a Roman prison:

 For this cause I also suffer these things.

But despite all of this, he is confident in his faith:

Yet I am not ashamed, for I know him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I have committed to him against that day.

What he may be suffering now hardly compares to the power of God in whom he trusts and who will keep his soul safe until the return of Christ.  We are reminded of Paul’s phrase in Romans:

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us (Romans 8:18).

So, Paul exhorts Timothy once more to cleave to the teaching that he has received from Paul, but also to exercise the spiritual gifts of faith and love.  Timothy is to follow Paul’s example, relying on the power of God:

That good thing which was committed to you, guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.

APPLY:  

There are such things in the world that cause us to quail at them — persecutions of Christians around the world that make us cringe; an increasingly skeptical and secular culture that finds the Gospel unappealing; and even within the church itself, rampant confusion about the very nature and core of the Gospel.

We might find it easier at times to identify with the more timid Timothy than the ever-bold Paul.  That is why this passage should provide encouragement and comfort to us.

First, we are reminded of the faithfulness of the community of faith that has passed the faith on to us, just as Paul remembers his forefathers, and reminds Timothy of the faithful influence of his mother and grandmother.  Family and church are a source of inspiration for those who may be wavering.

Second, we are reminded to stir up the gift of God that we have been given when we first confessed faith in Christ.  Our response to the Gospel is not passive, but active.  We have this promise that resonates down through the centuries:

God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.

Third, we have the deposit of the faith itself — the pattern of sound words that we have been taught concerning the Good News of Jesus Christ.  This is the solid doctrine of the church that has stood the test of time:

given to us in Christ Jesus before times eternal… now… revealed by the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the Good News.

Just as Jude 3 tells us to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints, so we are to prevent this faith from adulteration:

That good thing which was committed to you, guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.

We are encouraged to overcome our fears by remaining connected to the family of faith; by actively stirring up the gift that has been given us; and by cleaving to the faith once delivered to the saints.

RESPOND: 

Many years ago, my wife and I were in counseling.  We were, and are, a Christian couple for whom faith in Christ and commitment to our marriage are very closely related.

However, I had become a workaholic in my ministry, and my wife was increasingly frustrated by how little she and our sons were seeing of me.

The Christian counselor helped me to see that I was largely motivated by fear — fear of failure, fear of not “measuring up.”  He helped me to understand that God already loves and accepts me, not because of what I’ve done but because of what Christ has done.  That liberated me to find balance in my life.

As one of my former supervisors had once told me, I needed to have three priorities in my life:

• First, God.
• Second, Family.
• Third, Church.

And he admonished me not to confuse God and the Church!

But the counselor also helped me to see that my fear of failure was not consistent with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He quoted this verse from 2 Timothy:

God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.

He broke it down for us:

• God’s perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18)
• Power, love, and self control represent the well-balanced personality:
• Power signifies the self-aware and differentiated person who knows who they are and has the confidence that comes from a strong relationship with God.
• Love is the essential Christian gift that enables a person to have compassion and connection with others.
• Self-control is the capacity for self-discipline that keeps inappropriate appetites and narcissistic impulses in check.

The well-balanced personality begins by being anchored in God.

Lord, sometimes I am filled with anxiety when I think of the sweep of current events, and the desperate need for the love and joy and peace of the Gospel in our world. And then I am reminded — you aren’t anxious!  Why then should I be? Cast out my fear, and imbue me with your power, love, and self-control. Amen.

 PHOTOS:
"2 Timothy 1-7 "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."" by Church Iglesia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Reading from Acts for May 1, 2022

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Acts 9:1-6
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This is a defining moment in the book of Acts.  Saul is a proud Pharisee, a strict Jew, and a zealous adherent of the Law.  When this new sect of Judaism arises, proclaiming that Jesus is not only the Messiah, but he also has been crucified and raised to life, all of Saul’s gauges for measuring heresy go off at once.

Because of his devotion to Judaism and the temple, Saul is determined to root this bunch out and eliminate the threat to his faith.

Saul supervised the first recorded martyrdom following the resurrection of Jesus, when Stephen was stoned to death because of his testimony:

Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul (Acts 7:58).

Saul was inspired to make this persecution a more systematic process:

That day a severe persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria … Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison (Acts 8:1,3).

Now, Saul hopes to widen the circle of what he considers to be justifiable persecution of these heretics:

Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

Not content with eliminating Christianity in Jerusalem, Saul is on a mission to eradicate this heresy!  Saul is nothing if not systematic, obsessive, and highly effective.

Then, as in many a great plot, there is a dramatic twist.  Saul is on his way to Damascus when he is confronted by the very One whose followers Saul wishes to exterminate:

Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”  

Like so many “theophanies” in the Scriptures (a theophany is a moment when God’s presence is made manifest in some way), this one is accompanied by light.

• Moses encounters the Lord in a burning bush (Exodus 3).
• In Exodus 13:21, the Lord leads the people of Israel through the wilderness with a great pillar of light by night.
• Ezekiel’s vision of the wheel within a wheel and the four living creatures that appeared in the sky was accompanied by flashes of lightning (Ezekiel 1:4-14).
• Daniel sees a man clothed in linen whose face is like lightning (Daniel 10:6).
• And of course, when Jesus experienced the Transfiguration, we are told:
  he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white (Matthew 17:2).

But Saul had not sought this vision at all!  Nevertheless, he instantly recognizes that he is in the presence of Divinity:

He asked, “Who are you, Lord?”

Now comes the moment of revelation:

The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”

By persecuting the church — those who have made the decision to believe in and follow Jesus — Saul is actually persecuting the Son of God himself!  Certainly this must have been both a horrible and a wonderful moment for Saul — to learn that he is so wrong about everything, and yet to have encountered the risen Christ!

From now on his life will be dramatically altered:

 But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.

APPLY:  

This passage has provided a touchstone and a model for many Christians throughout the centuries, who have compared their own entrance into faith to this experience of Saul.

Although there are usually common elements to conversion — a dawning awareness that one is going the wrong direction; a strong compulsion to change; and a clear sense that God is directing one’s steps and enabling the new life that he requires — no one’s experience is completely identical.

What is universal about this experience for all Christians is the summons to transformation.  When we realize that we are on the wrong side of history, so to speak, the Lord “appears” to us one way or the other, convicts us, and redirects our path.

This is no doubt what Saul/Paul means when he writes:

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! (2 Corinthians 5:17).

RESPOND: 

The Damascus Road experience is not always welcome.  It does involve change — radical change — in our lives.  Saul would have to examine everything he believed, process it, and come to the inescapable conclusion that the Scriptures he had learned since childhood pointed irrefutably toward Christ.

C.S. Lewis, the famous Christian apologist and writer of marvelous Christian fiction, was a hard-headed and resistant atheist before his conversion.  He was influenced by another literary professor at Oxford University, J.R.R. Tolkien. They often took long walks and talked of the great truths of the Gospel.  But Lewis didn’t want them to be true.  He already had his belief system, and this would certainly disrupt his life.  But it became as inevitable as the Damascus Road:

“You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing; the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms. The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape? The words “compelle intrare,” compel them to come in, have been so abused by wicked men that we shudder at them; but, properly understood, they plumb the depth of the Divine mercy. The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation.”  C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy

In my own experience, encountering God has been like experiencing that illuminating Light, that makes sense of the world and of existence and of my life.  But it has also diverted my plans.  I wanted to be a novelist, or a journalist — but God said to me:

you will be told what you are to do.

And, to paraphrase Robert Frost — that has made all the difference.

Lord, we begin our lives moving away from you, even hostile to your way, your people, your existence sometimes.  And then we encounter you, and realize just how blind we’ve been — and we don’t see clearly until we see the world through the new glasses that you give us.  Thank you for changing my direction, and leading me always back to you.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
"St. Paul on road to Damascus" by Ted is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for October 6, 2019

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
2 Timothy 1:1-14
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This is the second of St. Paul’s preserved letters to Timothy,  his young protege in ministry.  He clearly establishes his credentials as an apostle, not according to his own choice but according to the will of God and the promise of the life which is in Christ Jesus.

His fondness for Timothy is clear — he calls Timothy his beloved child and wishes the very best for his “son in the faith”:

to Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Interestingly, Paul claims that he serves God just as his forefathers did, with a pure conscience. This is significant because Paul is establishing his continuity with the Jewish traditions and Hebrew Scriptures of his heritage.  He is suggesting that the Christian revelation is in no way a departure from the Old Testament revelation.

Paul’s reference to his own heritage is also a prelude to his discussion of Timothy’s religious heritage.  He tells Timothy that he prays for him, and remembers his tears — perhaps when they were parted, or perhaps when Timothy came to Christ?  Paul is also reminding himself — and Timothy — of the faith of Timothy’s  grandmother Lois and mother Eunice.

We know from Acts 16:1 that Timothy was likely from Lystra in the region of Galatia (in modern-day Turkey).  Even more, we know that his mother was Jewish and his father was Greek.  Very likely his mother and grandmother, whom Paul mentions, had converted to Christianity.

Although his mother and grandmother may have had an impact on his spiritual development, we know that he had not been circumcised as a Jew, no doubt because of his Gentile father.  Paul taught that circumcision was not required of Christians, but Timothy did submit to circumcision in order to quell the criticism of Jews in the region.  Timothy also was an extremely useful messenger and helper in Paul’s ministry.

One of the difficulties of reading someone else’s mail — which we do every time we read an epistle in the New Testament — is that we may not be aware of some of the unspoken assumptions that the original reader is aware of.  In this instance, Paul seems to be striving to encourage Timothy in his ministry.

We might deduce, from Paul’s choice of words, that Timothy is a little shy and reticent in carrying out his ministry assertively.  Paul tells him to:

stir up the gift of God which is in you…

Paul reminds Timothy that he himself has laid hands on him and prayed.

He admonishes Timothy not to be afraid, or ashamed:

For God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.  Therefore don’t be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner…

By the same token, Paul doesn’t soft pedal or sugar-coat the risks of ministry:

endure hardship for the Good News according to the power of God…

And Paul reminds Timothy what it means that Paul laid hands on him and prayed.  He has been saved and has been called to ministry  with a holy calling. Paul takes this opportunity to remind Timothy of the central doctrines of the Gospel:

• Salvation by grace — not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ.
• The centrality of Christ’s life, death and resurrection — revealed by the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the Good News. 

Paul reiterates that this is the message he was appointed to share as a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. Again, he highlights his unique calling — though he himself is a Jew by birth and heritage, and was highly committed to his Jewish faith prior to his conversion, he is convinced that he has been set aside by God to fulfill the Great Commission to all the world, Jews and Gentiles alike.

In a line that almost seems an afterthought, he alludes to his long litany of hardships for the sake of the Gospel, and also his current incarceration in a Roman prison:

 For this cause I also suffer these things.

But despite all of this, he is confident in his faith:

Yet I am not ashamed, for I know him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I have committed to him against that day.

What he may be suffering now hardly compares to the power of God in whom he trusts and who will keep his soul safe until the return of Christ.  We are reminded of Paul’s phrase in Romans:

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us (Romans 8:18).

So, Paul exhorts Timothy once more to cleave to the teaching that he has received from Paul, but also to exercise the spiritual gifts of faith and love.  Timothy is to follow Paul’s example, relying on the power of God:

That good thing which was committed to you, guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.

APPLY:  

There are such things in the world that cause us to quail at them — persecutions of Christians around the world that make us cringe; an increasingly skeptical and secular culture that finds the Gospel unappealing; and even within the church itself, rampant confusion about the very nature and core of the Gospel.

We might find it easier at times to identify with the more timid Timothy than the ever-bold Paul.  That is why this passage should provide encouragement and comfort to us.

First, we are reminded of the faithfulness of the community of faith that has passed the faith on to us, just as Paul remembers his forefathers, and reminds Timothy of the faithful influence of his mother and grandmother.  Family and church are a source of inspiration for those who may be wavering.

Second, we are reminded to stir up the gift of God that we have been given when we first confessed faith in Christ.  Our response to the Gospel is not passive, but active.  We have this promise that resonates down through the centuries:

God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.

Third, we have the deposit of the faith itself — the pattern of sound words that we have been taught concerning the Good News of Jesus Christ.  This is the solid doctrine of the church that has stood the test of time:

given to us in Christ Jesus before times eternal . . .  now . . . revealed by the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the Good News.

Just as Jude 3  tells us to  contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints, so we are to prevent this faith from adulteration:

That good thing which was committed to you, guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.

We are encouraged to overcome our fears by remaining connected to the family of faith; by actively stirring up the gift that has been given us; and by cleaving to the faith once delivered to the saints.

RESPOND: 

Many years ago, my wife and I were in counseling.  We were, and are, a Christian couple for whom faith in Christ and commitment to our marriage are very closely related.

However, I had become a workaholic in my ministry, and my wife was increasingly frustrated by how little she and our sons were seeing of me.

The Christian counselor helped me to see that I was largely motivated by fear — fear of failure, fear of not “measuring up.”  He helped me to understand that God already loves and accepts me, not because of what I’ve done but because of what Christ has done.  That liberated me to find balance in my life.

As one of my former supervisors had once told me, I needed to have three priorities in my life:

• First, God.
• Second, Family.
• Third, Church.

And he admonished me not to confuse God and the Church!

But the counselor also helped me to see that my fear of failure was not consistent with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He quoted this verse from 2 Timothy:

God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.

He broke it down for us:

• God’s perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18)
• Power, love, and self control represent the well-balanced personality:
• Power signifies the self-aware and differentiated person who knows who they are and has the confidence that comes from a strong relationship with God.
• Love is the essential Christian gift that enables a person to have compassion and connection with others.
• Self-control is the capacity for self-discipline that keeps inappropriate appetites and narcissistic impulses in check.

The well-balanced personality begins by being anchored in God.

Lord, sometimes I am filled with anxiety when I think of the sweep of current events, and the desperate need for the love and joy and peace of the Gospel in our world. And then I am reminded — you aren’t anxious!  Why then should I be? Cast out my fear, and imbue me with your power, love, and self-control. Amen.

 PHOTOS:
"2 Timothy 1-7 "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."" by Church Iglesia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Reading from Acts for May 5, 2019

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Acts 9:1-6
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This is a defining moment in the book of Acts.  Saul is a proud Pharisee, a strict Jew, and a zealous adherent of the Law.  When this new sect of Judaism arises, proclaiming that Jesus is not only the Messiah, but he also has been crucified and raised to life, all of Saul’s gauges for measuring heresy go off at once.

Because of his devotion to Judaism and the temple, Saul is determined to root this bunch out and eliminate the threat to his faith.

Saul supervised the first recorded martyrdom following the resurrection of Jesus, when Stephen was stoned to death because of his testimony:

Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul (Acts 7:58).

Saul was inspired to make this persecution a more systematic process:

That day a severe persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria … Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison (Acts 8:1,3).

Now, Saul hopes to widen the circle of what he considers to be justifiable persecution of these heretics:

Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

Not content with eliminating Christianity in Jerusalem, Saul is on a mission to eradicate this heresy!  Saul is nothing if not systematic, obsessive, and highly effective.

Then, as in many a great plot, there is a dramatic twist.  Saul is on his way to Damascus when he is confronted by the very One whose followers Saul wishes to exterminate:

Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”  

Like so many “theophanies” in the Scriptures (a theophany is a moment when God’s presence is made manifest in some way), this one is accompanied by light.

• Moses encounters the Lord in a burning bush (Exodus 3).
• In Exodus 13:21, the Lord leads the people of Israel through the wilderness with a great pillar of light by night.
• Ezekiel’s vision of the wheel within a wheel and the four living creatures that appeared in the sky was accompanied by flashes of lightning (Ezekiel 1:4-14).
• Daniel sees a man clothed in linen whose face is like lightning (Daniel 10:6).
• And of course, when Jesus experienced the Transfiguration, we are told:
  he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white (Matthew 17:2).

But Saul had not sought this vision at all!  Nevertheless he instantly recognizes that he is in the presence of Divinity:

He asked, “Who are you, Lord?”

Now comes the moment of revelation:

The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”

By persecuting the church — those who have made the decision to believe in and follow Jesus — Saul is actually persecuting the Son of God himself!  Certainly this must have been both a horrible and a wonderful moment for Saul — to learn that he is so wrong about everything, and yet to have encountered the risen Christ!

From now on his life will be dramatically altered:

 But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.

APPLY:  

This passage has provided a touchstone and a model for many Christians throughout the centuries, who have compared their own entrance into faith to this experience of Saul.

Although there are usually common elements to conversion — a dawning awareness that one is going the wrong direction; a strong compulsion to change; and a clear sense that God is directing one’s steps and enabling the new life that he requires — no one’s experience is completely identical.

What is universal about this experience for all Christians is the summons to transformation.  When we realize that we are on the wrong side of history, so to speak, the Lord “appears” to us one way or the other, convicts us, and redirects our path.

This is no doubt what Saul/Paul means when he writes:

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! (2 Corinthians 5:17).

RESPOND: 

The Damascus Road experience is not always welcome.  It does involve change — radical change — in our lives.  Saul would have to examine everything he believed, process it, and come to the inescapable conclusion that the Scriptures he had learned since childhood pointed irrefutably toward Christ.

C.S. Lewis, the famous Christian apologist and writer of marvelous Christian fiction, was a hard-headed and resistant atheist before his conversion.  He was influenced by another literary professor at Oxford University, J.R.R. Tolkien. They often took long walks and talked of the great truths of the Gospel.  But Lewis didn’t want them to be true.  He already had his belief system, and this would certainly disrupt his life.  But it became as inevitable as the Damascus Road:

“You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing; the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms. The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape? The words “compelle intrare,” compel them to come in, have been so abused by wicked men that we shudder at them; but, properly understood, they plumb the depth of the Divine mercy. The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation.”  C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy

In my own experience, encountering God has been like experiencing that illuminating Light, that makes sense of the world and of existence and of my life.  But it has also diverted my plans.  I wanted to be a novelist, or a journalist — but God said to me:

you will be told what you are to do.

And, to paraphrase Robert Frost — that has made all the difference.

Lord, we begin our lives moving away from you, even hostile to your way, your people, your existence sometimes.  And then we encounter you, and realize just how blind we’ve been — and we don’t see clearly until we see the world through the new glasses that you give us.  Thank you for changing my direction, and leading me always back to you.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
"St. Paul on road to Damascus" by Ted is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for October 2, 2016

START WITH SCRIPTURE:

2 Timothy 1:1-14

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This is the second of St. Paul’s preserved letters to Timothy,  his young protege in ministry.  He clearly establishes his credentials as an apostle, not according to his own choice but according to the will of God and the promise of the life which is in Christ Jesus.

His fondness for Timothy is clear — he calls Timothy his beloved child and wishes the very best for his “son in the faith”:

to Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Interestingly, Paul claims that he serves God just as his forefathers did, with a pure conscience. This is significant because Paul is establishing his continuity with the Jewish traditions and Hebrew Scriptures of his heritage.  He is suggesting that the Christian revelation is in no way a departure from the Old Testament revelation.

Paul’s reference to his own heritage is also a prelude to his discussion of Timothy’s religious heritage.  He tells Timothy that he prays for him, and remembers his tears — perhaps when they were parted, or perhaps when Timothy came to Christ?  Paul is also reminding himself — and Timothy — of the faith of Timothy’s  grandmother Lois and mother Eunice.

We know from Acts 16:1 that Timothy was likely from Lystra in the region of Galatia (in modern-day Turkey).  Even more, we know that his mother was Jewish and his father was Greek.  Very likely his mother and grandmother, whom Paul mentions, had converted to Christianity.

Although his mother and grandmother may have had an impact on his spiritual development, we know that he had not been circumcised as a Jew, no doubt because of his Gentile father.  Paul taught that circumcision was not required of Christians, but Timothy did submit to circumcision in order to quell the criticism of Jews in the region.  Timothy also was an extremely useful messenger and helper in Paul’s ministry.

One of the difficulties of reading someone else’s mail — which we do every time we read an epistle in the New Testament — is that we may not be aware of some of the unspoken assumptions that the  original reader is aware of.  In this instance, Paul seems to be striving to encourage Timothy in his ministry.

We might deduce, from Paul’s choice of words, that Timothy is a little shy and reticent in carrying out his ministry assertively.  Paul tells him to:

stir up the gift of God which is in you…

Paul reminds Timothy that he himself has laid hands on him and prayed.

He admonishes Timothy not to be afraid, or ashamed:

For God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.  Therefore don’t be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner…

By the same token, Paul doesn’t soft pedal or sugar-coat the risks of ministry:

endure hardship for the Good News according to the power of God…

And Paul reminds Timothy what it means that Paul laid hands on him and prayed.  He has been saved and has been called to ministry  with a holy calling. Paul takes this opportunity to remind Timothy of the central doctrines of the Gospel:

• Salvation by grace — not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ
• the centrality of Chris’s life, death and resurrection — revealed by the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the Good News. 

Paul reiterates that this is the message he was appointed to share as a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. Again, he highlights his unique calling — though he himself is a Jew by birth and heritage, and was highly committed to his Jewish faith prior to his conversion, he is convinced that he has been set aside by God to fulfill the Great Commission to all the world, Jews and Gentiles alike.

In a line that almost seems an afterthought, he alludes to his long litany of hardships for the sake of the Gospel, and also his current incarceration in a Roman prison:

 For this cause I also suffer these things.

But despite all of this, he is confident in his faith:

Yet I am not ashamed, for I know him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I have committed to him against that day.

What he may be suffering now hardly compares to the power of God in whom he trusts and who will keep his soul safe until the return of Christ.  We are reminded of Paul’s phrase in Romans:

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us (Romans 8:18).

So, Paul exhorts Timothy once more to cleave to the teaching that he has received from Paul, but also to exercise the spiritual gifts of faith and love.  Timothy is to follow Paul’s example, relying on the power of God:

That good thing which was committed to you, guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.

APPLY:  

There are such things in the world that cause us to quail at them — persecutions of Christians around the world that make us cringe; an increasingly skeptical and secular culture that finds the Gospel unappealing; and even within the church itself, rampant confusion about the very nature and core of the Gospel.

We might find it easier at times to identify with the more timid Timothy than the ever-bold Paul.  That is why this passage should provide encouragement and comfort to us.

First, we are reminded of the faithfulness of the community of faith that has passed the faith on to us, just as Paul remembers his forefathers, and reminds Timothy of the faithful influence of his mother and grandmother.  Family and church are a source of inspiration for those who may be wavering.

Second, we are reminded to stir up the gift of God that we have been given when we first confessed faith in Christ.  Our response to the Gospel is not passive, but active.  We have this promise that resonates down through the centuries:

God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.

Third, we have the deposit of the faith itself — the pattern of sound words that we have been taught concerning the Good News of Jesus Christ.  This is the solid doctrine of the church that has stood the test of time:

given to us in Christ Jesus before times eternal . . .  now . . . revealed by the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the Good News.

Just as Jude 3  tells us to  contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints, so we are to prevent this faith from adulteration:

That good thing which was committed to you, guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.

We are encouraged to overcome our fears by remaining connected to the family of faith; by actively stirring up the gift that has been give us; and by cleaving to the faith once delivered to the saints.

RESPOND: 

Many years ago, my wife and I were in counseling.  We were, and are, a Christian couple for whom faith in Christ and commitment to our marriage are very closely related.

However, I had become a workaholic in my ministry, and my wife was increasingly frustrated by how little she and our sons were seeing of me.

The Christian counselor helped me to see that I was largely motivated by fear — fear of failure, fear of not “measuring up.”  He helped me to understand that God already loves and accepts me, not because of what I’ve done but because of what Christ has done.  That liberated me to find balance in my life.

As one of my former supervisors had once told me, I needed to have three priorities in my life:

• First, God.
• Second, Family.
• Third, Church.

And he admonished me not to confuse God and the Church!

But the counselor also helped me to see that my fear of failure was not consistent with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He quoted this verse from 2 Timothy:

God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.

He broke it down for us:

• God’s perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18)
• Power, love, and self control represent the well-balanced personality:
• Power signifies the self-aware and differentiated person who knows who they are and has the confidence that comes from a strong relationship with God.
• Love is the essential Christian gift that enables a person to have compassion and connection with others.
• Self-control is the capacity for self-discipline that keeps inappropriate appetites and narcissistic impulses in check.

But the well-balanced personality begins by being anchored in God.

Lord, sometimes I am filled with anxiety when I think of the sweep of current events, and the desperate need for the love and joy and peace of the Gospel in our world. And then I am reminded — you aren’t anxious!  Why then should I be? Cast out my fear, and imbue me with your power, love, and self-control. Amen.

 PHOTOS:
"Mesican Fencepost Cactus with Bible Verse" by Bible Verse Photo is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for June 5, 2016

START WITH SCRIPTURE:

Galatians 1:11-24

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This is one of the passages in Paul’s epistles — like 2 Corinthians 11-12, and Philippians 3 — in which he is extremely autobiographical.  In all three of these passages, Paul is illustrating the drastic transformation that has happened in his life, and his journey from a legalistic Pharisee who was zealous for the law to a Christian renewed by the grace of Jesus Christ.

In Galatians, his purpose is both defensive and polemical.  The Galatians have been visited by teachers who are proclaiming a different gospel (Galatians 1:6).  Their false teachings, says Paul, are a perversion of the gospel, and they should be accursed.

Here is the issue — Judaizers who have come to Galatia are saying that they believe in Jesus as the Messiah, but they insist that Gentiles must also subscribe to the Mosaic law, including the ritual law of circumcision.  [I have gone into more detail with commentary in last week’s post on Galatians 1:1-12.]

According to Paul’s interpretation of the gospel, the ceremonial and ritual law has been abolished, and salvation is a gift of God received by faith.  Salvation is by grace, not by works of the law.

So, Paul finds it necessary to prove his credentials to the Galatians. Part of his motivation for doing so is to illustrate that he had once been one of those who was a strict adherent of the law.

Here is his case:

• He reminds them that in his earlier life he was not only a Jew, he was dedicated to the destruction of the Christian church because he believed the church was a heretical sect. Moreover, he was among the religious elite in his adherence to the tenets of Judaism and the traditions of my ancestors. Therefore, he is suggesting, these Judaizers who have come among the Galatians do not bring a superior interpretation of the gospel. They merely bring a variation of the same message that Paul used to believe — that the law was the means of salvation.
• He also insists that his understanding of the gospel has come by direct revelation from Christ himself (verses 11-12).  He supports this argument by pointing out that even after God revealed his Son to him he did not seek instruction from any human being or go to Jerusalem in order to be taught by the apostles.  His description of his travels to Arabia, the three year sojourn in Damascus, his trip to Jerusalem and subsequent travels in Syria and Cilicia establish the fact that he was not beholden to the apostles for his understanding of the gospel.  Even when he was in Jerusalem visiting Cephas, and meeting James who was then regarded as the head of the church, he points out he was only there fifteen days.  In other words, he insists that he has received unique authority and revelation from Jesus himself!
• Paul’s transformation from persecutor of the church to apostle of the church is so dramatic that it soon became proverbial among the churches of Judea that:

The one who formerly was persecuting us is now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy.

APPLY:  

If we put aside the polemical aspect of this passage, what we see is the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ to transform a life.

Paul is reminding us that he was once hostile to the gospel of Jesus Christ and to all who believed it, and to the church which had coalesced around that gospel.  And because of God’s call and singular revelation to him, his hostility was transformed into love and faith.

If that can happen in the life of a man like Paul who was once zealous for the law and then became devoted to the gospel of grace, what can God’s grace do in our lives?

RESPOND: 

I knew a very wise man once who said that our theology tends to be autobiography.  I think what he meant by that is this: our faith and our understanding of the gospel is shaped by our own experience of God.

This doesn’t mean that our experience trumps the Scriptures or the traditions of the church.  What it does mean is that there is an intersection between the truths of the Christian faith and our own faith.

I can personally attest to the life-changing power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Therefore I can identify with the testimony of Paul.  No, I wasn’t a Jew, or a Pharisee, or a persecutor of the church.  Nevertheless, the general application of the gospel to my personal story is transformative.  And I would be willing to bet that the gospel is transforming for anyone who seriously allows God to enter into their lives.

Our Lord, I thank you that I’m not what I once was because of your grace, that your grace has restored me to relationship with you, and that you are in the process of transforming me. Please finish what you have started in me.  Amen.

 PHOTOS:
"Conversion on the Way to Damascus" by Caravaggio is in the Public Domain.

Reading from Acts for April 10, 2016

START WITH SCRIPTURE:

Acts 9:1-6

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This is a defining moment in the book of Acts.  Saul is a proud Pharisee, a strict Jew, and a zealous adherent of the Law.  When this new sect of Judaism arises, proclaiming that Jesus is not only the Messiah, but he also has been crucified and raised to life, all of Saul’s gauges for measuring heresy go off at once.

Because of his devotion to Judaism and the temple, Saul is determined to root this bunch out and eliminate the threat to his faith.

Saul supervised the first recorded martyrdom following the resurrection of Jesus, when Stephen was stoned to death because of his testimony:

Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul (Acts 7:58).

Saul was inspired to make this persecution  a more systematic process:

That day a severe persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria … Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison (Acts 8:1,3).

Now, Saul hopes to widen the circle of what he considers to be justifiable persecution of these heretics:

Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

Not content with eliminating Christianity in Jerusalem, Saul is on a mission to eradicate this heresy!  Saul is nothing if not systematic, obsessive, and highly effective.

Then, as in many a great plot, there is a dramatic twist.  Saul is on his way to Damascus when he is confronted by the very One whose followers Saul wishes to exterminate:

 Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”  

Like so many “theophanies” in the Scriptures (a theophany is a moment when God’s presence is made manifest in some way), this one is accompanied by light.

• Moses encounters the Lord in a burning bush (Exodus 3).
• In Exodus 13:21, the Lord leads the people of Israel through the wilderness with a great pillar of light by night.
• Ezekiel’s vision of the wheel within a wheel and the four living creatures that appeared in the sky was accompanied by flashes of lightning (Ezekiel 1:4-14).
• Daniel sees a man clothed in linen whose face is like lightning (Daniel 10:6).
• And of course, when Jesus experienced the Transfiguration, we are told:

he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white (Matthew 17:2).

But Saul had not sought this vision at all!  Nevertheless he instantly recognizes that he is in the presence of Divinity:

He asked, “Who are you, Lord?”

Now comes the moment of revelation:

The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”

By persecuting the church — those who have made the decision to believe in and follow Jesus — Saul is actually persecuting the Son of God himself!  Certainly this must have been both a horrible and a wonderful moment for Saul — to learn that he is so wrong about everything, and yet to have encountered the risen Christ!

From now on his life will be dramatically altered:

 But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.

APPLY:  

This passage has provided a touchstone and a model for many Christians throughout the centuries, who have compared their own entrance into faith to this experience of Saul.

Although there are usually common elements to conversion — a dawning awareness that one is going the wrong direction; a strong compulsion to change; and a clear sense that God is directing one’s steps and enabling the new life that he requires — no one’s experience is completely identical.

What is universal about this experience for all Christians is the summons to transformation.  When we realize that we are on the wrong side of history, so to speak, the Lord “appears” to us one way or the other, convicts us, and redirects our path.

This is no doubt what Saul/Paul means when he writes:

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! (2 Corinthians 5:17).

RESPOND: 

The Damascus Road experience is not always welcome.  It does involve change, radical change, in our lives.  Saul would have to examine everything he believed, process it, and come to the inescapable conclusion that the Scriptures he had learned since childhood pointed irrefutably toward Christ.

C.S. Lewis, the famous Christian apologist and writer of marvelous Christian fiction, was a hard-headed and resistant atheist before his conversion.  He was influenced by another literary professor at Oxford University, J.R.R. Tolkien. They often took long walks and talked of the great truths of the Gospel.  But Lewis didn’t want them to be true.  He already had his belief system, and this would certainly disrupt his life.  But it became inevitable as the Damascus Road:

“You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing; the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms. The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape? The words “compelle intrare,” compel them to come in, have been so abused by wicked men that we shudder at them; but, properly understood, they plumb the depth of the Divine mercy. The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation.”  C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy

In my own experience, encountering God has been like experiencing that illuminating Light, that makes sense of the world and of existence and of my life.  But it has also diverted my plans.  I wanted to be a novelist, or a journalist — but God said to me:

you will be told what you are to do.

And, to paraphrase Robert Frost: that has made all the difference.

Lord, we begin our lives moving away from you, even hostile to your way, your people, your existence sometimes.  And then we encounter you, and realize just how blind we’ve been — and we don’t see clearly until we see the world through the new glasses that you give us.  Thank you for changing my direction, and leading me always back to you.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
"St. Paul on road to Damascus" by Ted is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.